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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Story 


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OF 


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THE 


IE SAME AUTHOR 


Thirteen Colonies. 


Story 


of 


THE 


Great Republic. 


Story 


OF 


THE 


Chosen People. 


Story 


OF 


THE 


Greeks. 


Story 


OF 


THE 


Romans. 


Story 


OF 


THE 


English. 


Stories of the Wagner Operas. 








Etc., Etc. 




B. Plockhorst. 
THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 



YOURSELF 



BY 

H. A. GUERBER 

Author of « Myths of Northern Lands," " Stories 
of Famous Operas," "Empresses 
of France," etc. 



4* 



11 ) > I ) | 



NEW YORK 

DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 
1902 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

T*o Cowee Received 

SEP. Ijj 1902 

CnwrnwHT W*TTTY 

CLASS «^)OCol No 

COPY B. 



Copyright igos 
By Dodd, Mead & Company 

First edition published September, 1902 
Entered at Stationers Hall 



Printed by 

THE CAXTON PRESS 

1 71-173 Macdougal St. 
New York, u. s. A. 



Dedicated 

to 

Charles and Louise 

with many hopes 

that they may always be strong, 

happy and good 



INTRODUCTION 



To Parents and Teachers : — 

In conversing with earnest parents and enlight- 
ened teachers, who confide to me many of the 
problems which daily confront them, I have be- 
come more and more convinced of the pressing 
need of a work dealing frankly and explicitly 
with all matters pertaining to the physical, mental 
and moral well-being of our children. A book, 
treating not only of all the matters usually dis- 
cussed, but also of excretion, sex, and reproduc- 
tion, topics to which most books merely allude, 
which good people approach in fear and trem- 
bling, and about which none but the impure speak 
freely at all times and cannot be silenced. 

Our children have the right to know the exact 
truth about themselves. Were it possible and 
safe to leave them entirely ignorant and untram- 
meled concerning their origin, and all sexual mat- 
ters, until adult years and mature understanding 
made full enlightenment expedient, I would 
gladly advocate complete silence. But such a 
mode of procedure has become impossible nowa- 



vi Introduction 

days, unless we remove to desert islands. 
Whether parents and guardians are aware of the 
fact or not, the only alternative now left, if we 
do not wish to have our offspring at least mentally 
contaminated, is to impart ourselves, purely and 
reverently, all they need know. If we keep 
silence, through ignorance, false modesty, mis- 
taken kindness, or innate inability to instil our 
knowledge of hygiene or morals, we are cheating 
the children confided to our care of their unalien- 
able right " to life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness." 

The difficulties of broaching certain subjects, 
are, I concede, considerable, but they are not 
insurmountable, as parents will see if they will 
carefully peruse this volume, which contains all 
that can help and will fully satisfy normal children. 
Pure-minded children desire to learn these mat- 
ters in a pure and open way, and the mode of 
presentation here used, instead of harming even 
the prurient minded, will only serve to check 
their propensity to spread abroad such knowledge 
as they possess, by showing them how such mat- 
ters are viewed by all decent people. Besides, 
it will supply the innocent with what they now 
lack, i. e., a means of self-defense against insid- 
ious, mental, if not moral and physical contamina- 
tion. 

There is, of course, much in this volume which 



Introduction vii 

all carefully brought up children already know, 
and nothing which they should not know, or 
which can shock any person who does not wan- 
tonly read into it more, or something else than it 
is intended to convey. 

The census of 1900 stated there were in the 
United States twenty-one million children be- 
tween the ages of five and seventeen, many of 
whom are less favored by fortune than yours. 
Educational statistics inform us that three quar- 
ters of the pupils who enter the public schools, 
leave at twelve or thirteen, and never receive 
further instruction of any kind. To fit such 
children — many of whom are worse than orphans 
as far as home training is concerned — to become 
useful citizens, and in due time self-respecting 
and capable fathers and mothers, is one of the 
main tasks set before us. 

The schools have long realized that physiology 
and hygiene, once taught in the higher grades 
only, are indispensable at every stage. While 
from an adult's point of view there are now many 
admirable text-books on the subject, my attention 
was only comparatively recently called to the 
fact, that, from a child's standpoint, there is no 
work vivid, detailed or practical enough, to make 
so lively an impression that its teachings will ever 
after form part of the daily life of the recipient, 
and rise spectre-like whenever he or she is con- 



viii Introduction 

fronted by the temptation to violate any of the 
fundamental laws of health or morality. 

As it is unsafe to postpone such instruction too 
long, this volume, designed for children under 
twelve, is couched in language of extreme sim- 
plicity, a very small vocabulary and short sen- 
tences being purposely used, so that they can 
read it understandingly themselves, and so that it 
will be perfectly intelligible even to parents of 
foreign extraction. A certain amount of space 
has been devoted to the care and training of 
babies, because many older children are con- 
stantly called upon to play the part of nurse- 
maid to their younger brothers and sisters. 

Lacking the unsavory data which most adults 
have involuntarily collected in the course of the 
old-fashioned, long and round-about methods of 
acquiring divine truths, most children under 
twelve can and will see nothing more in this mat- 
ter than what is told them here, provided they 
first hear the truth in all its beauty and simplicity. 

A sufficiently detailed explanation is vouch- 
safed, to make them realize the sacredness and 
privacy of the whole subject, so no one need 
fear embarrassing questions or comments, and the 
knowledge cannot but act as a safeguard at all 
times and in all places. Besides, it will certainly 
put an end to further discussion of the subject 
with their companions among all those who are 



Introduction ix 

not already hopelessly perverted. The fact that 
such discussions are rife everywhere, and that the 
need of the instruction given in this book is 
widely felt, is not only proved by hosts of pas- 
sages in many of the leading works on pedagogy, 
but is further emphasized by President Roose- 
velt's first message, wherein we find the state- 
ment : " The most vital problem with which this 
country, and for that matter, the whole civilized 
world has to deal ... is the betterment of 
social conditions, physical and moral, in large 
cities." 

To effect permanent reform in these matters, 
it is not only necessary that each parent should 
take the matter to heart, and act as leaven in his 
or her own community, but it is also and espe- 
cially incumbent upon us all to instil right views 
and principles in the children confided to our 
care, for they, a few years hence, will be at 
the head of all our municipal and governmental 
affairs. 

This volume can be used without any restric- 
tions whatever in the homes, and in schools 
where boys or girls are under teachers of their 
own sex. Still, most teachers are so thoroughly 
imbued with the desire to further the real welfare 
of their pupils, that none of the more enlight- 
ened women will object to read this book to 
young children of either sex, provided male prin- 



x Introduction 

cipals have the sense and tact to know when to 
keep the class rooms uninvaded by visitors and 
to refrain from intruding, themselves. 

My experience is that to most young children 
" all things are pure," and that one feels properly 
rebuked for all hesitation by the beautifully simple 
and matter-of-course way in which such informa- 
tion is received. Still, if the book is used in 
large or mixed classes, where teachers, often by 
intangible means only, become aware of the 
presence of some vicious element, it may be well 
to set aside certain chapters for silent perusal, 
for home study, or for written recitation. A lit- 
tle tact and common sense is all that is required. 

The perusal of this volume will certainly make 
a parent's or teacher's task much easier in matters 
which it is often difficult to check, or report, and 
public opinion among the children themselves will 
do more to enforce cleanliness and decent be- 
havior, than any number of rules or the utmost 
vigilance on the part of parents and teachers. 

This book has been submitted to the rigid 
criticism of several family physicians, as well as 
to parents and teachers of experience. The 
writer is deeply indebted to these critics and to 
many others consulted, for pertinent hints, and 
for help and encouragement. A few of the verbal 
illustrations used, have been drawn from the 
" Self and Sex" series of the Purity Society, and 



Introduction xi 

from the many volumes on physiology, hygiene, 
psychology and pedagogy studied with a view- 
to present the subject in as broad, yet practical 
a light as possible. 

A few years hence, subjects now tabooed will 
be taught as a matter-of-course in all our homes 
and schools, for children are no more born with 
a sense of morality, than with a complete knowl- 
edge of geography or arithmetic. But until 
then, such a volume as this is bound to meet 
some opposition among the ultra-conservative 
class of parents, who still labor under the delu- 
sion that " ignorance is bliss," and " innocence " 
and " ignorance " are synonymous terms. Still, 
so many of the progressive parents and teachers 
have declared that this book is just what they 
have long wanted, but have been unable to pro- 
cure, that it is sent out into the world with the 
fervent hope that it will help the rising generation 
to cast off the trammels of ignorance, to preserve 
its innocence, and to prepare the next for still 
better things. 



Contents 



Page 

1. Your Little House i 

2. The Building Materials 3 

3. The Master of the House 6 

4. The Front-door 7 

5. The Stomach Dwarf 9 

6. What the Dwarf Does with the Food 12 

7. When the Dwarf gets Angry 15 

8. The Dwarf Needs a Rest 17 

9. How a Baby Should be Fed 20 

10. What Hurts a Young Stomach 24 

11. Neat Housekeeping 26 

12. How and When to Speak of Certain Things . . 29 

13. Where the Food goes 31 

14. Why Garbage Should be Removed 34 

15. How Food gets into the Blood 36 

16. What the Dwarf does with too Much Sugar . . 38 

17. The Waste Water . 40 

18. What Happens to Careless Masters 43 

19. How to Care for the Little Ones 44 

20. What Older Children Should Know 46 

21. What Boys Should Know 49 

22. The Pumping Twins 53 

23. The Blood-boats 56 

Xlii 



xiv Contents 

24. How the Blood-boats Load and Unload , . . . 58 

25. Pumping Dwarf Number Two 60 

26. What Makes the Twins Cross 61 

27. How to Treat a Cut 63 

2S. How we Breathe 66 

29. About Choking 68 

30. The Speaking Dwarf 71 

31. Where the Blood- boats get Their Air 74 

32. How bad Air Kills 78 

23. The Need of Air 82 

34. The Need of Sunshine 87 

35. The Frame of our House 89 

36. Baby's Bones 92 

37. How to Keep Straight Bones 94 

38. The Crooked Tree 97 

39. How to have Good Bones 99 

40. The Muscles , IOI 

41. How Muscles Change Shape 103 

42. How to Treat the Muscles 105 

43. How to Train Muscles 108 

44. With Brains, Sir no 

45. About Doing Things 112 

46. A Baby's Training 115 

47. The Advantage of Well Trained Muscles . . .118 

48. When to Fight 120 

49. The Pores 123 

50. How to Keep the Pores Open 126 

51. About Bathing 129 

52. Washing Babies 132 

53. About Lunches 134 

54. No Right to be Dirty 137 

55. About Handkerchiefs 140 

56. A Wise Law 141 

57. Catching Diseases 143 



Contents xv 

58. About Wet Feet 145 

59. The Hair and Finger-nails 148 

60. The Telegraph Office 152 

61. About Nerves 156 

62. The Brain Storehouse 159 

63. Good and bad Stores 160 

64. About Sleep 165 

65. Home After Dark 167 

66. About Beds and Bedding 170 

67. Lying Abed Mornings 172 

68. The Way to Study 174 

69. The Senses 176 

70. About Hearing 179 

71. How Alcohol was Found 181 

72. The Yeast Plant , . 184 

73. Harmful Drinks , 187 

74. The Harm Alcohol does 189 

75. Why People Drink . 191 

76. Why you Should not Drink 195 

77. Stronger Without Than with Liquor 198 

78. About Temperance 200 

79. The Use of Alcohol 203 

80. About Drinking 206 

81. About Tobacco 209 

82. The Harm Tobacco can do 213 

83. How Tobacco Acts on Boys 215 

84. Girls and Tobacco 217 

85. About Chewing c 219 

86. Nature's Secret 222 

87. About Plant Babies 227 

88. The Fish Babies 231 

89. The Bird Babies 234 

90. More About Bird Babies 237 

91. Animal Babies . 241 



xvi Contents 

92. Stories told About Human Babies 244 

93. How You Grew 247 

94. How You Came into the World 250 

95. Why You Should Love Your Mother 253 

96. Why You Should Love Your Father 254 

97. About Sex 256 

98. The Seven Year Periods 258 

99. Care for Your Bodies and Minds 260 

100. How to Keep Pure 263 

10 1. How Boys and Girls Become Men and Women . 266 

102. How to Care for Certain Parts of the Body . . 267 

103. About Kissing 270 

104. About the Company You Keep 274 

105. About Books 277 

106. About Pictures 278 

107. How to get More Information 281 



Yourself 



i. Your Little House. 

DID you ever think that you were something 
like a snail? Yes; you are, because 
you too live in a little house, which goes with 
you everywhere, from the moment you are born 
until you die. 

This house is your body. It belongs to you, 
and you can make it good, useful and pleasant 
to look at, or you can spoil it by lack of proper 
care, and thus make it ugly and unpleasant, be- 
sides making yourself very uncomfortable indeed. 

As long as you were a little baby, your mother, 
or some older person, took charge of this little 
house for you, but as soon as you began to walk 
and run about, you had to begin to look after it 
yourself. At first, nearly all you had to do was 
not to bump it against the tables and chairs, but 
every day you had a little more to do for it, until 
now you can take care of it for hours at a time 
when you are away from home or out at play. 

Of course, your mother still watches over you 
i 



2 Yourself 

part of the time, and tells you what to wear and 
what to eat. Mothers know that as long as you 
live you will have to stay in the same little house, 
whether it is nice and comfortable or not, for 
one cannot move out of one's body into a new 
one, as into a new house. So, mothers do their 
best to make their children's houses as good and 
comfortable as they can. 

It is just because you cannot change bodies, 
that it is so important that your body, or house, 
should receive the very best care. Many chil- 
dren have wise mothers, who watch over them 
so they cannot do much harm to these little 
houses even if they try; but even the wisest 
mother cannot always be near you, and therefore 
it is right that you should learn to help her, in- 
stead of hindering her as I have seen so many 
children do. 

When you are out at play, you have to take 
care of your little house yourself, and every 
child who is not an idiot, can and should learn 
to do it well. Sensible children can, of course, 
always be trusted to do what they know to be 
right, even if mother is not there to see that they 
do it. And, each year, as they grow older, they 
can learn to take better care of the house which 
God has given them. 

It is because you have to look after your own 
house, or to live to be very sorry because you 



The Building Materials } 

did not do so, that I am going to tell you many 
things about it. There may even be some things 
which mother does not yet know, for wise men 
are always finding out something new and won- 
derful about these houses we live in, and I have 
read many of their books so that I could tell you 
all you need know at present about them. 

2. The Building Materials. 

The body is very different from the houses we 
build out of wood, stone and brick. Those stay 
where they are put, and are always about the 
same. But our bodies live, grow, and move 
about as we wish, and keep changing night and 
day as long as we are in them. You know that 
all houses look something alike ; that is to say, 
they all have walls, roofs, windows, doors, etc. 
Our bodies, too, all look somewhat alike, for we 
all have a head, a trunk, legs and arms, with 
eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and too many other 
things to mention. 

All the houses you see are made of wood, 
stone, brick, mud, or iron, and when the builder 
does his work well, he makes good and pretty 
places to live in out of just these materials. If 
you want a house it is, therefore, best to choose 
a man who knows how to build it properly, for 
he will make the best use of the materials you 
give him. 



4 Yourself 

Wood, stone, brick, mud, and iron, change 
so very little, that a house once built, remains 
much the same for many years. But even a good 
strong house has to be kept clean, and nicely 
painted inside and out. Besides, new nails, 
boards, pipes, and plaster are needed from time 
to time, if the whole place is to be kept neat and 
in good repair. 

Now, no sensible person ever dreams of using 
any but the right materials to build or repair a 
real house. If a window is broken, you get a 
new pane of glass ; if a pipe is broken you mend 
it or get a new one, and if the house is dingy, 
you put a fresh coat of paint upon it. 

If any one were foolish enough to put a silk 
handkerchief instead of the pane of glass, to stuff 
cake or candy into a pipe hole to stop a leak, or 
to smear the house all over with molasses or 
butter instead of paint, you would laugh and think 
it a very silly way to act, would you not ? 

Our bodies are built too, not of brick, wood, 
stone, or iron, but out of blood, which makes 
muscle, bone, nerves, etc. These, each house- 
owner has to make for his own use, out of food, 
water, and air. Since you have to make your 
own blood, bone, muscle and nerves, it is right 
for you to know how you can best do so, for 
there is good and bad blood, as well as good and 
bad bones, muscles and nerves ; and whether all 



The Building Materials 5 

these are good or bad depends mostly on the 
blood-maker and on the kind of material he 
uses. 

You admire good, strong and handsome men 
and women, and wish to grow up as tall, straight 
and good-looking as possible, do you not ? 
Well, all this depends in a great measure upon 
yourselves, and if you will read carefully what 
this book says, and if you will do exactly what 
it tells you, it is very sure you will grow up far 
stronger and handsomer, than if you pay no at- 
tention whatever to the matters it teaches. 

Unlike a house built by hands, the body, as I 
have already said, keeps changing all the time. 
That is because we are alive. Every breath we 
draw and every mouthful we eat or drink, works 
some change in our body. 

If the air and water are pure and good, and if 
the food we eat contains the right materials to 
make good blood, to keep all the parts of our 
bodies in good repair, and to help them grow, 
all is well with us, and we feel happy and com- 
fortable. 

But if we breathe bad air, drink impure 
water, or eat the wrong kind of food, all cannot 
be well with us. We are then bound to feel 
more or less uncomfortable, and, if such a state 
of affairs goes on any length of time, we are sure 
to be ill. 



6 Yourself 

3. The Master of the House. 

An empty house is very dull and uninteresting. 
It is the people who live in it whom we wish to 
hear about. If the house is well kept, we know 
that the people who dwell there are neat, and if 
it is pretty, we know they have good taste. We 
often judge of the people who live in the houses 
by the way those houses appear. 

It is just the same with our bodies. The body 
is our house, and we would care very little about 
the bodies of others were it not that by looking 
at them we can often learn a great deal about the 
persons who live in them. 

In houses, there are often many persons at 
once; some are neat, others are not; some have 
taste, others have not; so, it is sometimes very 
hard to know just what kind of people are in a 
certain dwelling. But it is very different with 
our bodies. Each body has only one master, the 
real person, the part of us which thinks, and the 
body has to obey this master, who lives up in the 
top story, or the brain. 

Each house-master looks out of two little 
windows — the eyes, — hears all that is going on 
by means of two little telephones — the ears, — 
and sends messages all over the house to direct 
what shall be done. He hears, and sees, and 
notices, all that is going on around him when- 
ever he wishes to do so. 



The Front Door 7 

Many of the things done in and by the body, 
are done only when the master sends special 
orders ; countless other things are done for him 
by his servants while he is sleeping or otherwise 
occupied, for each master has many, many little 
servants, all of whom know their duty and do it 
faithfully, as long as all is right and they are 
kindly treated. 

4. The Front Door. 

The outside of the body is all covered with 
skin, in and under which run many little tele- 
graph wires — the nerves. These tell the master 
of the house whether it is hot or cold, what we 
are touching or doing, and by means of them he 
sends word what he wants the hands or feet or 
any other part of the body to do. The skin is 
quite thick and hard on the outside of the body, 
especially in the places where it gets the most 
wear and tear; but in other spots it is quite thin 
and very tender and soft. 

The skin not only covers all the outside of the 
body, but it lines all the inside as well. Still, the 
inner skin is not nearly so thick as the outer 
skin. In fact, it is so thin, that you can see right 
through it. You can notice this by looking into 
your own mouth in a mirror. Your skin begins 
to grow thinner when it reaches the lips. It 
lines all the inside of the mouth and runs down 



8 Yourself 

into the house, lining the halls, rooms, stairways, 
and the many pipes which run through the inside 
of it in all directions. 

The mouth is the front door of the house. 
When the master, from his post up near the win- 
dows (eyes), sees food coming, he telegraphs to 
the doorkeeper: "Open the door!" Then 
the mouth flies open and the food is laid down 
on the tongue, which is a kind of door-mat. 

The skin lining the mouth and tongue is so 
thin, that you can see the blood through it, and 
the little telegraph wires are so near the surface, 
that they can feel very quickly what kind of a 
thing it is which has been put into the mouth. 
They telegraph to the master for instance: " It 
is a piece of good wheat bread." 

As soon as the master receives this message, 
he knows that bread ought to be chewed and 
mixed carefully with spittle, if it is to do the 
body all the good it should. So he right away 
telegraphs to the jaws: "Begin chewing," and 
to the tongue: *• Keep turning it over and over." 
Then he also sends word to all the little spittle 
buckets, which are hidden under the skin of the 
mouth and tongue, saying: " Pour out spittle, 
keep that food moist." 

All these orders are quickly obeyed, and soon 
the little nerves telegraph back to the master: 
11 The longer that bit of bread is chewed, turned 



The Stomach Dwarf 9 

over and moistened, the sweeter it gets." Then 
the master answers: " That is right, that is just 
as it should be. Now tongue, throw that food 
down-stairs, so that my servant the stomach can 
take charge of it." 

5. The Stomach Dwarf. 

If you look into your mouth, keeping your 
tongue down, you will see a hole in the back. 
This hole leads to a kind of stairway which runs 
up into your nose and ears, and down into your 
stomach and lungs. The part running down 
looks like two tubes. One of these tubes is used 
for the air we breathe, and the other for the food 
we eat. Instead of steps, these stairways or 
tubes have elastic rings which open and shut, as 
you can feel, if you choose, next time you 
swallow. 

You surely know that you can take in air, as 
well as food, through your mouth, if you care to 
do so. Well, the air-tube or staircase, is nearer 
the front of your body than the food-tube or 
staircase. In fact it opens just behind the hole 
you see in the back of your mouth. 

When the tongue gathers up the food to throw 
it down the food-tube, which is just beyond the 
air-tube, the master quickly telegraphs to the 
little doorkeeper, who opens and shuts the air- 
tube, saying: " Food coming, shut that door ! " 



io Yourself 

Right away, a little trap-door closes the opening 
of the air-hole, and the tongue pushes the food 
back and over it, until it rolls down the food- 
tube, where each step or ring opens to receive it 
and then closes behind it, so as to prevent its go- 
ing in any but the right direction. 

It is because there are such elastic rings in our 
food-tubes, that clowns at the circus can eat and 
drink even while standing on their heads I Al- 
though you might think that the food and water 
would then run down into their noses or ears, it 
all goes to the right place, thanks to those use- 
ful little rings. 

At the bottom of the food, or back stairway, 
there is a little room called the stomach. This 
room, too, is all lined with skin. It is shaped 
something like a big pear, and is so elastic, that 
it can stretch so as to receive quite a large 
quantity of food at one time. 

This little room is also something like a cradle 
or swing, for it rocks and shakes the food for one, 
two, or three hours, so as to mix it up nicely. 

Now we are going to make believe (although 
the little room is really quite empty), that 
there is a little Dwarf who lives down there, 
because I want you to know just what goes on 
in it. 

When the master telegraphs to the tongue: 
11 Throw that food down-stairs ! " he also sends a 



The Stomach Dwarf n 

message to the stomach saying: " Food com- 
ing, get ready to receive it." Then the Dwarf 
runs to the tube or stairway, and when the food 
drops down into the stomach, he looks it all over 
very carefully. 

If it is good wholesome food, the Dwarf is 
greatly pleased. He rubs his hands with glee 
and says: " Bread ! That's good. And nicely 
chewed, too. That's sensible. All mixed up 
with spittle. Ah I That is just the way it should 
be 1 That will make fine blood, bone, muscle 
and nerves 1 " 

Meantime, the front door up-stairs has opened 
to receive a mouthful of meat, which the master 
saw coming too. Again he telegraphs to the 
teeth: " Tear up that meat ! " To the tongue: 
"Turn it over and over," and to the spittle 
buckets: " Moisten it." 

When the meat is just like pulp, the master 
bids the tongue throw it down the food-tube into 
the stomach. Again the air-tube closes, the food 
passes safely over the little trap-door, and rolls 
down-stairs, where the little Dwarf in the stom- 
ach receives it saying: "Ah! meat, and well 
chewed too. That is right I Meat should al- 
ways be chewed up fine, or it gives me a world 
of trouble. 

"lam glad to see that the teeth and tongue 
up-stairs are doing their duty. Master must have 



1 2 Yourself 

reminded them to chew that food carefully. 
Sometimes, he is so taken up attending to other 
duties, that he forgets all about it. Then the 
jaws stop moving, the teeth don't chew, the 
tongue won't turn the food over and over, and the 
lazy thing gets rid of it all by throwing it down- 
stairs whole ! 

"That does make me very cross, I must say. 
I have no teeth down here to use so as to grind 
and tear meat to pieces. Then too, I like to 
have it well mixed with spittle, because I know 
it will be so much easier to handle, and will make 
so much better building material for this little 
house." 

6. What the Dwarf Does with the Food. 

The little Dwarf cheerfully receives all the 
bread, butter, meat, vegetables, milk, water and 
dessert which is sent down the tube at meal 
times, provided it is, as we have said, nicely 
chewed, and well mixed with spittle. But he 
gets very cross when you pour a lot of ice water, 
for instance, down the food-tube. " Bother!" 
he says, " I do wish my master would not allow 
that ! Here is a lot of water. Now I'll have to 
warm it all up before I can go on with my work. 
Why didn't he remind the mouth to hold it long 
enough to warm it a bit before sending it down 
to me > " 



What the Dwarf Does with the Food 1 3 

Still, the little Dwarf is, after all, such a faith- 
ful good-natured servant, that however cross he 
may get, he goes right to work to heat up the 
cold water. Then, from the sides of the stom- 
ach, where there are many little tubes, the Dwarf 
takes a kind of juice, like, and yet unlike spittle. 
This is now mixed up with the food, which the 
stomach next churns up and down, and around 
and around, for one, two, or three hours, until it 
is all mixed up into a soft mass, and so changed 
that you could not tell any more what part was 
meat, or bread or vegetables. 

Besides the little tubes which pour juice into 
the stomach, there are many others, which pump 
up the watery parts of the food after the stomach 
has churned it, and carry off this material to help 
make new blood. 

When the stomach has churned the food for 
awhile, and as soon as any of it is ready to pass 
on, the Dwarf opens a little door at the other end 
of the stomach, and lets the soft food drop down 
into a big pipe, all ready to receive it. You will 
soon hear more about this pipe and about the 
food, but now we want to watch the little Dwarf. 
When he has got rid of all the food, he breathes 
a sigh of relief. He has been working very hard, 
and says: " There! that work is neatly done I 
Now, I must see about making more juice, so 
that when the next food comes tumbling down- 



14 Y:\r::'.f 

stairs I'll have plenty on hand wherewith to chum 
it up nicely." 

The D'.varf then sets to v.crk putting ah the 
little juice buckets in cruer. Scmetirr.es. v.hue 
he is thus busy, and before he has had a chance 

food is coming to be taken care ::'. This makes 
the poor little Dwarf very cress indeed. 

Tnere are. ycu know, many children, who treat 
their Dwarf just so. They are very greedy, and 
never eat anything save what they like. These 
are often things which taste good, but which fill 
up the stomach, and do not supply much material 
out of which blood can be made to keep the lit.— 
tie house in good repair. 

This naturally makes the little Dwarf very 
angry indeed, for he knows he is working hard 
vain. So he growls, and grumbles, 
" My master ought to have mare 
sense. Does he think I can make good building 
material out of nothing but candy, cake, jam, 
-inkles, cr such stuff as that • It is as silly as if 
he expected a builder to use loaves of bread in- 
stead of bricks, and taffy instead of mortar ! 



sre not much good if you get 






d..- ii 



little 


o: 


t n e 


sue n 


as 


mil 


breac 




Mlt 1 


not:.: 


"5 


e.se 



When the Dwarf Gets Angry i$ 

7. When the Dwarf Gets Angry. 

When the little Dwarf is really angry, he goes 
about his work in a sulky, half-hearted way. He 
does not mix the food up well, and is in a great 
hurry to get rid of it. Sometimes, he is so very 
cross, growls so much, and makes such a fuss, 
that it actually gives the master up-stairs a bad 
headache. 

At other times the Dwarf says in disgust : 
" Pah, food that does not make good blood al- 
ways smells bad after it gets down here. Now 
I'll just let a whiff of the bad smell creep back 
up-stairs, so that master can know what a great 
mistake it is to send such stuff down here I " 

Then the dwarf opens the upper door and the 
smell creeps up, up, up, fills all the staircase and 
hallway, and even rushes out of the mouth or 
front door. Then, other people can smell it too, 
for sometimes one hears them say : "Oh! Oh 1 
So-and-so has such bad breath I Surely he has 
eaten something which does not agree with him." 

As I have told you, the Stomach Dwarf is 
really a very good-natured, obliging little fellow. 
He will put up with much ill-treatment for a time, 
but when he gets very cross, and begins to re- 
bel, he can make it very uncomfortable for the 
master of the house. 

Once in a great while, something comes tum- 
bling down-stairs which is either very bad for the 



1 6 Yourself 

stomach, or which is more than the poor stomach, 
however elastic, can contain. Then the Dwarf 
gets in a big rage. He stamps about, clenches 
his fists, and all at once he cries out : " I won't 
stand this any longer I " 

With that, he gives the stomach such a fierce 
turn and shake, that all the food which is in it is 
hurled up-stairs again with great force. The mas- 
ter, whose head generally aches at this time, — 
because of the noise the Dwarf has made, al- 
though no one else can hear it — now receives 
word that food is coming up the staircase 1 

As you know, this is not the usual direction in 
which food travels, and the master is horribly put 
out and disgusted at having things go wrong. 
Still, he cannot help it now, so he quickly tele- 
graphs to the trap-door to close, and to the front 
door to open. Then the food, which the stom- 
ach would not keep, all passes out of the house 
again. 

When this happens to a child, people say: 
11 Oh, the poor child is sick at his stomach 1 " or 
11 Oh, poor little thing, how she vomits I What 
can be the matter with her ? She must be ill." 

The real trouble, generally, is that the child 
has ill-treated a poor stomach until at last it rebels, 
and takes its revenge by ill-treating the child for 
a little while, so as to teach the youngster to 
behave more sensibly another time. 



The Dwarf Needs a Rest 17 

When the stomach has thus been forced to 
punish its master for much ill use, it is just as 
well to give it a chance to rest. After a few 
hours of lying down, one can sip a little hot 
water into which was put a pinch of salt. This 
flows down the staircase and into the stomach, 
where the Dwarf is glad to use it to wash out his 
little room and make it all sweet and clean once 
more. About half an hour later, if the Dwarf is 
very quiet, and the master's head stops aching, 
a little warm milk and toast is very good. 

Generally, the Dwarf receives this food very 
kindly, and if the master sends nothing but very 
plain food down to him for the next few days, he 
is likely to recover all his cheerful spirits and 
good temper, and to be once more the obliging, 
hard-working little servant whom I have already 
described. 

8. The Dwarf Needs a Rest. 

Still, there is something besides wrong food or 
too much of it, which is very likely to put the 
Stomach Dwarf out of temper. That is eating 
too often, and you will see that it is quite natural 
this should make him cross, when I explain to 
you just how it affects him. 

As I told you, the Stomach Dwarf receives all 
the food which comes down at meal times, and 
then sets to work to churn it up. This takes 



1 8 Yourself 

one, two, or three hours, sometimes even more. 
The length of time depends partly upon the kind 
of food which was sent down to him, partly upon 
the quantity, and partly whether it was well 
chewed and nicely mixed with spittle. 

If during those one, two, three or more hours, 
a telegram suddenly comes from the master say- 
ing : " More food is coming down the stairway ! " 
the Dwarf has to stop work so as to go and re- 
ceive it. Then he has to mix this new food with 
juice, and shake and stir it up so as to get it 
ready to handle with the rest. 

Meantime, the food which he has been obliged 
to stop working over, and which has grown very 
hot in the stomach, begins to spoil, and by the 
time the Dwarf can attend to it once more, it is 
partly rotten, and no longer good to make blood. 

Then the Dwarf grumbles and says: ''To 
think of all this nice food spoiling and going to 
waste, after everybody has had the trouble to 
get it ready and send it down here I Yes, it is a 
shame. It is good for nothing now. It won't 
make good blood, never mind how hard I try. 
If my master only had a little sense, he would 
have kept that front door tight shut. The very 
idea of letting in candy, cake, or any other stuff 
when I am still busy ! He ought to know bet- 
ter. If he does not look out I'll get angry and 
kick 1 " 



The Dwarf Needs a Rest 19 

Then, too, food sometimes comes tumbling 
down at the very minute when the poor little 
Dwarf has got rid of the last meal, is longing for 
a little rest, and a chance to make some more 
juice. This, too, makes him very angry, indeed. 

Now, there are some children who never give 
their poor Stomach Dwarfs a chance to rest as 
long as they are awake. The little fellow is kept 
busy with a bit of this, and a taste of that, and 
has to work, work, all the time. Just stop and 
think how you would like to be treated in that 
way, and whether it is quite fair that you should 
treat your Stomach Dwarf so. 

You surely see, now, why older people so 
often say to children : " You should not eat be- 
tween meals 1 " Yes ; the older people are quite 
right, it is not good for your health to eat at any 
but regular hours, and then you should take only 
just enough of the most wholesome kind of food. 

If you are strong, if you sleep well, and if you 
have rosy cheeks it won't hurt you a bit to have 
a little plain cake, or candy, for dessert, but if 
you put sweets into your pocket, and all the time 
between one meal and the next, take a bite now 
and then, you keep bothering your poor little 
Stomach Dwarf, and by and by he will be sure 
to bother you. 

Once in a while, a fruit stone, or a button, or 
a bit of bone, is swallowed by accident, and 



20 Yourself 

comes down into the stomach. The little Dwarf 
turns this strange thing over and over, shakes it 
and moistens it, and only when he finds that he 
can do nothing with it, does he allow it to pass 
on into the big tube, so as to get rid of it as 
quickly as possible. 

Sometimes the Stomach Dwarf, however badly 
treated, works on month after month, and year 
after year, as best he can ; but he is nevertheless 
growing always weaker and weaker, and more 
tired, so that by the time his master is grown up, 
he will be quite worn out, and hardly able to 
work any more at all. 

Then the master will always be more or less 
sick and uncomfortable. He will have to have 
a doctor, to take lots of nasty medicine, will 
be allowed to eat and drink only certain things, 
and be obliged to spend ever so much time and 
money taking care of a stomach, which, if well 
treated in childhood, would have grown stronger 
rather than weaker, and would have proved a 
faithful little servant as long as its master needed it. 

9. How a Baby Should be Fed. 

Until baby is a year old, at least, it should 
never have even the smallest taste of anything ex- 
cept the milk mother gives it, or the food care- 
fully prepared for it in its bottle. 

When most of baby's teeth have come through, 



How a Baby Should be Fed 21 

it may have a crust of bread, or a cracker, to 
bite upon, besides having milk, baby food, and 
sometimes a soft boiled egg. 

Little by little, as he grows older, baby learns 
to eat hominy, rice, oatmeal, mashed potatoes 
with gravy, and many other soft and simple things. 

But it is only when a child has all his teeth, 
and when you can make him clearly understand 
that he must chew the food put into his mouth, 
that it is at all safe to give him even the tiniest 
piece of meat, or anything hard. 

This is so well known by wise doctors, that 
there is a law in France, to forbid giving any 
solid food to children under two years of age. 
Any person caught doing so, is therefore arrested, 
put in prison, or fined, just as happens here when 
any one steals. In France they say such people 
are robbing the baby of his health, — his most 
precious possession, — and they are right. 

There are some parents — who really should 
know much better — who give small children a 
wee taste of every different kind of food upon 
the table, just to see what they will do. These 
people sometimes laugh until they cry over the 
funny faces the babies make. This is not only 
silly, but it is also very unkind to treat poor chil- 
dren so badly. 

You all know how tender a baby's outer skin 
is. Well, the skin inside of a baby is very, very 



22 Yourself 

delicate too. It is so delicate, that the least little 
thing can make it very sore. Even a wee little 
taste, of one of the many things which grown 
people can eat without its doing them any harm 
at all, is therefore very bad for a baby. 

Of course, after baby has once tasted sugar, 
candy, cake, and many other things which please 
him while in his mouth, he wants more. Poor 
baby does not know that there is as yet, none of 
the right kind of juice in his mouth or down in 
his stomach to mix up with this food, and turn it 
into blood, but the older people ought to know 
that. 

That food goes down into his little stomach, 
where the Dwarf, who is all ready to take care of 
milk, or baby food only, does not know what to 
do with the strange stuff which has come down to 
him. He shakes it up, but that only makes the 
tender stomach skin very sore and uncomfortable. 
Then poor baby frets, and cries, and every one 
wonders: "Why is that child so dreadfully 
cross ? " 

After baby has been very unhappy, — and has 
made others very unhappy too, — some one may 
suggest that he has a pain, and give him a little 
medicine to stop it. But if baby had had noth- 
ing but his own food, and only at the right time, 
so that his stomach could have a little rest, he 
would probably not have needed this medicine at 



How a Baby Should be Fed 23 

all, and would have been saved the discomfort he 
had to endure. 

A baby who has never tasted cake, or candy, 
or anything but what he should eat, does not 
know that the other things are good, so of course, 
he does not want them, and he is much more 
likely to grow up strong and happy without them. 

I have heard people say : u Oh, but baby 
sees me eat those things and he wants to eat 
them too." Well, baby sees you light a fire, ride 
a bicycle, sew on the machine, and do a host of 
other things which you would not dream of let- 
ting him do, never mind how much he wanted to 
do them or how hard he cried. And, after all, 
they are really no worse for baby than feeding 
him the wrong kind of food. 

Even little babies can soon learn not to ask 
for or touch certain things, if the older people 
are only wise and patient in the way they teach 
them. If baby once learns that he never gets 
anything to eat, save what is put on his own plate, 
or into his own mug, he will not give nearly so 
much trouble as if he is allowed to taste what 
others eat. Some wise mammas know this very 
well, and are therefore very strict and careful, 
but many others do not know or understand this, 
and their poor baby suffers. 

Sometimes, older brothers and sisters have to 
take care of baby while mother is out or busy. 



24 Yourself 

If you ever have to do so, you should be very 
careful not to give baby even a taste of any food 
you may be eating, because as you now know, 
his stomach is not yet ready for it, and you may 
make him very ill. 

10. What Hurts a Young Stomach. 

Until three or four years of age, a child's meat 
and other food should be minced very fine, or 
mashed, before he is allowed to put it into his 
mouth, But, even then, he should be taught to 
chew it well. When he has learned to do so 
thoroughly, and when you are quite sure he can 
be trusted, you can give him meat which has been 
cut into small pieces, and it will do him no harm. 

The lining of all children's stomachs is so very 
tender, that they should never eat highly seasoned 
things, and until they are grown up they should 
never touch tea, coffee, mustard, pepper, pickles 
or such things. Even then, they should use these 
things only very moderately, for they do not make 
blood and can do harm. You may be greatly 
surprised to hear this, and you may say : " Oh, 
nonsense, I have eaten pickles and mustard, and 
have drunk tea and coffee often I It has never 
done me any harm, and I like all those things I " 

As I have told you, the skin lining your 
stomach is very thin and very sensitive ; in fact, 
much thinner and far more sensitive than the skin 



What Hurts a Young Stomach 2$ 

covering even the inner part of your arm. Now 
take for instance, a small spoonful of mustard, 
just as much as you would put on your plate. 
Lay it on your arm, just above your wrist, and 
tie a cloth over it to keep it in place. Leave 
that mustard there, two or three hours — that is 
the length of time the mustard would remain in 
your stomach, you know, — and then see what 
happens. 

Remember, just the same thing, only far worse, 
happens down in your stomach, for the skin there 
feels the effect of mustard much more quickly 
than the thick skin upon your arm. When you 
are quite grown up, and when the skin of your 
stomach has grown tough with age and use, a lit- 
tle mustard may not only do you no harm, but 
may even do you much good ; but such things, 
while wholesome for grown up people, are de- 
cidedly bad for all children. 

I have known some children, who, after trying 
the mustard experiment for themselves, and after 
receiving the explanation which I have here given 
you, have been wise enough to give up eating all 
highly seasoned and spiced things, and drinking 
tea and coffee, although they were very fond of 
them all. In a few cases, the parents, not under- 
standing the reason of this change in their chil- 
dren's diet, made great fun of them, said it was 
a cranky notion, and declared they had always 



26 V:-'i;.Y 

eaten and drunk such thir.us and so hud their 
parents, some of whom had lived to be eighty ! 

AH this is very true, but people who live to be 
eighty, in spite of eating the wrong kind of food, 
and drinking tea and coffee, would certainly have 
lived to be one hundred, had they done without 
such unv,-h;ies:r.e ::.:,:. espe:iui>; v.h.Le they 

None but very plain food should ever pass a 
child's lips, anu certainly no child should ever 

drink anything; but water, rniik. ::. :n:e in a 
great v.hiie. a iittie ::::a. :h;::iate. ierrtnade. 
c: sor.e simpie fruit syrup. .-..': :the: drinks. 
even :ider. r::t deer, and s:ua water, ire -.:: 
good for children, as will be explained to you 
further on. 



\r 



When y:u g: int: z strange reuse, y:u gen- 
erally see nothing but the reception room or 
parlor. But in your own dwelling you visit all 
the different parts of the house. You therefore 
know that you could do without a parlor, much 
better than without a kitchen. The kitchen is 
by far the most useful room in the house, and if 
it is kept neat and clean, one need not be 
ashamed to let any one peep into it. 

Of course, when you have visitors, you receive 
them in the parlor, talk to them about pleasant 



Neat Housekeeping 27 

subjects, and show them all the pretty things you 
have. Nobody runs for the garbage can, or the 
swill pail, to set it down before the visitors and 
ask them to sniff how bad they smell. Neither 
do you spread the contents of the trash-basket or 
of the ash-barrel out before your guests, or show 
them the soiled clothes of the family. 

No, indeed, we keep only pleasant and clean 
things in the parlor, and talk only about those. 
But every neat housekeeper has a garbage can 
and an ash-barrel, and they are very useful 
articles indeed, much more so, in fact, than 
pianos or picture books. Our houses could not 
be kept sweet and clean if all the ashes, papers 
and dirt were left in them, and our kitchens 
would not be fit to stay in, if they were littered 
up with all the potato and apple parings, the 
cabbage leaves, corn husks, pea-pods, fruit skins, 
scraps of meat, bone, etc. 

All those things would not only take up much 
room, and be in our way, but many of them 
would soon smell so bad that you could not stand 
it, and would either have to get out of the house 
or become very sick and die. 

All tidy housekeepers brush up the dust, pick 
up the papers, and clear out the ashes, every 
morning. These are carefully put into the ash- 
barrel, which you know, is emptied every few 
days by men hired to collect such refuse in cities 



28 Yourself 

and towns. The bits of food which are leftover, 
and which can no longer be used, all the fruit 
skins, vegetable parings, bones, etc., are care- 
fully scraped off the plates, and out of the pots 
and pans, and put into the garbage can. Then, 
a careful housekeeper covers it up tightly, so 
that no bad smells can creep out to poison the 
air. The garbage can, too, is put where the 
street cleaners can see and empty it when they 
make their usual rounds. 

If you live in the country, each house-owner 
has to look after the house refuse himself. Some 
of it is burned, some given to the pigs, some put 
on the manure heap to rot and make food for the 
ground, and such things as bones and ashes are 
often used to fill up holes or make roads. 

Now, although housekeepers or farmers have 
to spend a certain amount of time every day at- 
tending to the refuse, they don't make any fuss 
about it, and are not one bit ashamed of doing this 
work. They know that everybody has to do 
just that kind of thing, although it is not amusing, 
and there are far more interesting matters to talk 
about. 

Still, once in a while, a farmer or a housekeeper 
has to teach some one else how to dispose of this 
refuse. Or, perhaps, some one discovers some 
new and better way to get rid of this rubbish. 
Then, he naturally tells his friends and neighbors 



HoiD and When to Speak of Certain Things 29 

all about it, so they can get through their work 
more quickly, and have more time to spare for 
pleasanter things. 

A man, or woman, or child, who talks about 
refuse, with this object in view, is acting in a 
perfectly proper way, and if he can thereby do 
good to his fellow-creatures, he is a public bene- 
factor. But one who talks about it for mere 
fun, shows that he has a small mind, all taken up 
with unpleasant things, and that he is, therefore, 
unfit to associate with nice people. 

12. How and When to Speak of Certain 

Things. 
As our body is a house into which food is 
brought every day, it stands to reason that while 
some of that food is needed to feed the master 
of the house and his many servants, there is a 
part of it which is waste or refuse. That part 
must be removed, like the papers, dust, ashes 
and garbage, which we talked about a little while 
ago. 

Just as we are not in the habit of speaking be- 
fore strangers of our ash-barrels or garbage cans, 
we generally do not mention the body refuse in 
public. But just as an old housekeeper has to 
teach younger ones how to dispose of ashes and 
swill, so they can keep their houses sweet and 
clean, you must learn all about the body refuse, 



30 Yourself 

if you are to take proper care of your own little 
houses. 

Of course, all children old enough to read this 
book, will readily understand that there are 
times and places for everything. If a subject, 
not generally talked about, is mentioned here, it 
is because it is right and proper that you should 
know all about it. Stupid children always giggle, 
snicker, whisper, nudge each other, and exchange 
knowing glances when such matters are spoken 
about in their presence. 

But all the bright children are far too sensible 
to act in such a rude or silly way. They think : 
11 Our mother or teacher knows what is in this 
book, and what we ought to know. We must 
read carefully and learn all we can, because our 
health and even our lives can be lost by lack of 
care in just such matters as these we are now 
learning about." 

Of course, all the nice children know that 
while they must truthfully answer any questions 
parents, teachers, or doctors, ask in regard to 
this subject, that they are never to talk about it 
to any one else. For although there is nothing 
wrong about the body's refuse, it is not one bit 
nicer to talk about it needlessly, than to bring 
the garbage pail into the parlor. 

Now, I think even the smallest child who reads 
this book will understand how to behave, and I 



Where the Food Goes 31 

feel sure that none but those who have garbage 
pail minds will ever talk about it afterwards, save 
when they must, and then only in the briefest and 
nicest way. 

If any one should begin to speak to you on 
this subject in any other way, you can quietly 
tell them that this book has told you all about it, 
and that you have far too much respect for your- 
self and for the house which God has given you, 
to talk about it unless it is really necessary to do so. 

13. Where the Food Goes. 

When the Stomach Dwarf opens the lower door 
of the stomach, the food which is ready, drops 
down into a big tube. As it has been mixed with 
the spittle and the stomach juice, it is already 
very soft. Still, it is now to be mixed again with 
two other kinds of juice, which flow down from 
factories just above this big tube. 

The food which had already been changed by 
the mouth and stomach juices, is changed once 
more by these juices, and well shaken up again. 
When this is done it begins a long journey, for 
now it has to pass through many feet of tubing, 
all coiled up in your body, just below the line of 
your belt, or waist. This tubing varies greatly in 
size, and the different parts have very long names 
which only doctors are wise enough to know and 
remember. 



}2 Yourself 

Other people, when obliged to talk about these 
tubes, call them all bowels. Our bowels are very 
elastic, and they, too, open to let the soft food 
slide down, and close behind it so as to make sure 
that it will go only in the right direction. 

The bowels are made of skin and lined with 
skin something like velvet. Now, you know that 
if you look at velvet very closely, you can see a lot 
of little hairs or threads standing up on end. If 
you were to look at the skin lining the bowels, 
with a strong magnifying glass or microscope, you 
would see the little hairs or threads which cover 
every bit of it. 

Strange to say, every one of these little hairs is 
alive, and can move. Some of them pull the skin 
so that it will widen or tighten as the food passes, 
others bring a new kind of juice to mix with it, 
and the rest have tiny mouths which greedily 
drink up all the liquid part of the food as it passes 
by. In fact, there are so many of these little 
hairs or mouths, that by the time the food has 
slowly traveled all along the bowels, — which are 
about five times as long as the owner of the house 
is tall — they have sucked up all that part of the 
food which is good for the body. 

Nothing but the garbage, or refuse, is now left 
in the bowels, and that travels on to the place 
provided for it, which we will call the body gar- 
bage can. Even here, there is a servant, ready to 



Where the Food Goes 33 

attend to it, and from this place, too, little tele- 
graph wires run up to the head so that this serv- 
ant can send a message to the master of the 
house. If the master is a wise housekeeper, he 
attends to the matter right away, if it is possible 
to do so, for he knows it is not nice or healthful 
to keep refuse in the house a minute longer than 
needful, and he therefore bids the feet carry the 
body to the privy or water-closet. 

A good careful master, and neat housekeeper, 
sees that the garbage can is emptied every day at 
nearly the same hour, and generally as early in 
the morning as possible. He trains his little 
servant to be ready at the hour most convenient 
to him to see to this important part of his house- 
keeping. 

But, if the master wants to have a well-trained 
servant, he must begin early, and not let him get 
into bad habits. Then, too, he must be sensi- 
ble, and ready to heed any messages his servant 
sends. If the master does not pay any attention 
when the garbage can servant sends word that all 
is ready, the servant is very apt to grow careless 
and lazy, and before long the house is no longer 
well kept. Sometimes this servant grows so very 
sulky, that he does not send any more messages 
at all, although he knows very well that the gar- 
bage can is full, and should be emptied. 

When he grows as lazy as this, it is very bad 



34 Yourself 

indeed for the master of the house. All the gar- 
bage which should be removed then stays in the 
house and poisons the air all through it. That, 
you know, is not right. The garbage or refuse 
which should have been emptied not only fills the 
inside of the house with bad smells, but it soon 
makes the master very uncomfortable indeed. 

Then he feels sorry that he did not pay atten- 
tion to the call of the garbage servant, who some- 
times gets so cross that he won't empty the can 
even when his master tells him. When this hap- 
pens, the master has to take medicine, or else he 
will be really very ill. 

14. Why Garbage Should be Removed. 

There are many, many children, who, not 
knowing how very, very important it is to empty 
their garbage every day, pay no heed at all when 
the garbage servant says he is ready. Sometimes 
they don't want to be interrupted in their play, 
and sometimes they are really ashamed not to 
have attended to that part of their work when 
they could have done so without calling any one 
else's attention. In those cases the master sends 
a telegraph message back to the garbage servant 
saying: "I really cannot attend to this matter 
now, just wait a little while." 

Like the Stomach Dwarf, the Garbage Can 
Dwarf is really a very good servant, and only 



Why Garbage Should be Removed 3$ 

gets cross when badly treated. He therefore 
obeys this message without making much fuss, 
and if his master is sensible, and seizes the very 
first chance to attend to his work, he does not 
make any trouble. 

But, every time one of his messages is really 
neglected, he loses some of his strength and in- 
terest, until he finally becomes lazy and unrelia- 
ble. That is one reason why every house master 
should be so very careful about keeping him 
in good order. A properly trained garbage serv- 
ant always calls to have his can emptied long be- 
fore it is time to go to school, or to work, and 
then he does not send any more messages that 
day. 

But, if the house owner puts him off, or allows 
him to get into careless habits, the call may come 
at some other time. Besides, much more food 
may have gone into the house than is really 
needed. In that case, there is sure to be more 
refuse, for all the food which cannot be sucked 
up on its way through the stomach and bowels, 
is waste, and has to be cast out of the body. 

As every human being eats and has to dispose 
of refuse, every one knows that each house 
owner prefers to attend to this matter when he 
can do so without attracting attention. But as 
every one knows, there are times and places 
when this is not possible, then the only right and 



36 Yourself 

proper thing to do, is to take it as a matter of 
course, and leave the room, or quietly beg to be 
excused. 

Because it is natural for every living creature 
to get rid in this way of part of the body refuse, 
and because it is forced out by a squeezing mo- 
tion of the bowels or "a movement of the 
bowels/' it is often called by nice people " having 
a passage " or " attending to nature's calls " when 
it becomes necessary to speak of this private 
matter to a doctor or to their mother. 

1$. How Food Gets into the Blood. 

You have heard of the little tubes which suck 
up the liquid part of the food while it passes 
through the stomach and bowels. Of course, 
you wonder why these tubes take it up, and what 
they are going to do with it. These tiny tubes 
are so cleverly made, that they take up only the 
good part of the food, leaving all the rest. The 
food they take is all liquid and looks something 
like milk. They carry it off and pour it into 
many of the blood tubes, some of which go right 
to the liver. 

You may never have heard that you have a 
liver, which looks very much like the liver bought 
at the butcher's. Your liver is a big, dark red 
lump on the right side of your body, very near 
your stomach and just above your waist line. It 



How Food Gets into the Blood 37 

is a kind of strainer for all the food brought to it, 
and a manufactory for one of the juices poured 
into the bowels, to change, or digest, the food 
sent on by the stomach. Your liver, for instance, 
is said to take charge of all the sugar in the food 
you eat. Now, we are going to make believe 
that there is a Liver Dwarf, as well as a Stomach 
Dwarf, although you know there is really noth- 
ing of the kind, and it is the liver itself which 9 
does all the work. 

The Liver Dwarf is very glad indeed when the 
pipes bring him sugar, for he knows it is good 
for the body. But, just because sugar is needed 
by all living bodies, there is a little of it in all of 
the fruit, vegetables, and grains we eat. In fact, 
there is sugar even in white as well as in sweet 
potatoes, and a great deal of it is found in carrots, 
peas, and beets, as well as in the fruits in which 
we can actually taste it. 

The bread, fruit and vegetables we eat, supply 
nearly enough sugar for all the body's needs, so 
we really ought to add very little pure sugar to 
our meals. As I told you before, the Liver 
Dwarf likes to get some sugar, but whenever he 
gets too much of it, he has to work extra hard. 

Like the other parts of the body, the liver is 
very good-natured at first. If the master sends 
down more sugar than the body needs just then, 
the Liver Dwarf thinks: " Ah, master knows I 



3 8 Yourself 

need sugar to make good blood. He has sent 
down more than I want to-day, but perhaps he 
knows that he cannot get any at all to-morrow, 
and he does not want me to fall short." 

Then the liver sets cheerfully to work to store 
away all the sugar he does not need, so as to have 
it handy for use by and by, when none is brought 
from the stomach and bowels by the little tubes. 
The Liver Dwarf says : " Yes, yes, I do have to 
work extra hard just now, but then my master 
will doubtless give me long rest pretty soon." 

Sometimes it happens just so. But then again, 
it does not. There are, as you know, countless 
children, and many grown people, who eat a great 
deal of sugar in the shape of candy, cake, and 
sweetmeats, besides taking sugar in their coffee 
or tea, sugar on their oatmeal, hominy or rice, 
sugar, molasses or syrup (and that is all sugar 
after all) on their bread or pancakes, and even 
sugar on their lettuce and peas 1 All this sugar 
is more than the body needs, so the poor Liver 
Dwarf works over it, storing it away, and think- 
ing the day is coming when all this supply will be 
sorely needed. 

1 6. What the Dwarf Does with too 

Much Sugar. 
When, day after day, the master sends down 
more sugar than the liver can use, the poor Liver 



What the Dwarf Does with too much Sugar 39 

Dwarf gets very cross and tired and says : " This 
will never do. Here I am doing much more than 
my share of work, and all because master is 
greedy and selfish, and thinks that sugar tastes 
good. Well, so it does. I like sugar too. But, 
I like just enough of it. I don't want much more 
than I can use 1 " 

After much ill-use, the Liver Dwarf gets so 
cross and tired, that he works slowly, and in a 
sleepy, instead of in a brisk, wide-awake way. 
Sometimes he warns his master that all is not 
well, by making such a fuss that the master's 
head aches, very much as it does when the 
Stomach Dwarf is angry. Sometimes he sends 
some vapors up through the tubes, leading to the 
stomach ; they cover the tongue with an ugly 
white coat which looks so much like fur that 
people then say they have " furred tongues." 

At other times, the Liver Dwarf sends some of 
his yellow juice all over the house, until it shows 
right through the skin and the white part of the 
eyes. Then every one says : " Why, how yellow 
you are, you must be bilious ! " These people 
are quite right, for that yellow juice is called 
bile, and whenever it flows all over the house, in- 
stead of going only into the bowels, — where it is 
needed, — the body is bilious, and does not feel 
comfortable. 

If the master is wise, he will stop and think 



40 Yourself 

whether he has been quite sensible and whether 
he has treated all his servants just as he should. 
If he is clever enough to understand what I have 
explained to you, he thinks : " Ah, now I know 
what is the matter. I have allowed too much 
sugar to come into my house. My poor little 
Liver Dwarf has evidently been overworked for 
many days. I really must give him a rest. 
What he needs is no sugar at all until he has 
used up all the store on hand. 

44 Then, if I move about a great deal, if I walk, 
and run, and jump, or ride horseback, it will 
give my liver a good shaking up. That will 
please my little Liver Dwarf. He likes a good 
shaking, and will grow cheerful and lively again. 
By and by he will be quite ready to take up his 
work once more, and will stop making a fuss." 

If the master keeps his word, the Liver Dwarf 
generally does get all right again, but if no sweets 
and plenty of exercise does not bring him around, 
the master should have sense enough not to take 
any of the pills or medicines which friends will 
recommend, as "good for the liver," but to go 
and see a good doctor. He will know what is 
best for this special liver, because all livers are 
not alike, no more than all people are alike. 

17. The Waste Water. 
As* you have already learned, all the solid part 



The Waste Water 41 

of the waste is cast out of the body by the 
garbage servant, just as in our houses we get rid 
of the solid waste by means of the ash-barrel and 
garbage can. But there are other kinds of waste 
which are taken out of our houses by means of 
the sewer. 

As we drink a great deal, and as all kinds of 
food contain more or less water, a great deal of 
liquid goes into our bodies every day. Some of 
this liquid is needed to make blood. But, every 
day, part of the liquid in the body, having been 
already used, is no longer pure, and needs to be 
removed. 

Nearly all the liquid we take into our mouths, 
is sucked up by the little tubes in the stomach 
and bowels, from where, as you will learn later 
on, it is carried to different parts of the body to 
make blood. Sooner or later all this blood has 
to pass through the kidneys. 

The kidneys are two reddish lumps, about as 
big as your fists, placed on either side of your 
backbone, just under your belt line. The blood, 
in passing through the kidneys, is carefully 
strained, for the kidneys are a kind of blood 
sieve. They are made so cleverly, that they can 
strain all the impure water out of the blood, and 
remove many tiny bits of yellow colored waste 
from it. 

All the nice clean blood soon goes back to the 



42 Yourself 

heart, but the kidneys let the waste water flow 
down into a little sac, called the bladder. This 
sac is in the front part of the body, on a line 
with the garbage can. When the sac is full, the 
Bladder Dwarf sends a telegram to warn the 
master that it should be emptied. The master, 
who knows that this is true, generally pays atten- 
tion to this message, and sends back the neces- 
sary orders to have the waste water emptied from 
the body. 

It is because emptying the waste water is a 
very private matter, — just like emptying the gar- 
bage can, — that the body openings by means of 
which these two things are done, are always 
called the private parts. Nice people never talk 
about them, save when necessary, as I have al- 
ready explained to you, and all except tiny chil- 
dren, filthy boys, and ignorant savages, always 
keep these parts carefully covered, except when 
they are alone in the water-closet or taking a 
bath. 

Just as we must be very careful to keep our 
kitchen sinks very clean, and to cover our gar- 
bage cans, we must take special care of the 
private parts of our bodies. Every child old 
enough to read this book, should therefore get 
into the habit of washing these parts, every night 
and morning, with soap and water, for only in 
that way can one be sure to keep the house 



What Happens to Careless Masters 43 

which God has given us clean as it should be 
kept. 

18. What Happens to Careless Masters. 

When the master is too busy to attend to 
emptying the waste water as soon as the Dwarf 
calls that the bladder is full, he sends a telegram 
bidding him wait. The Dwarf obeys, but as the 
waste water goes on flowing down from the kid- 
neys, his sac gets more and more full, and 
stretches and stretches, until it nearly bursts. 
Then the Bladder Dwarf often sends another 
message, so that the master will be sure to know 
how uncomfortable matters are getting down in 
that part of the house. 

If this message also is not attended to, the 
waste water has to back up into the kidneys and 
stop their working. Then things are very bad 
indeed. The kidney servant is very angry be- 
cause he cannot get rid of the waste water and 
strain the blood, and the Bladder Dwarf is angry 
because no one pays any heed to his messages. 

Like all the other little servants in the body, 
both of these dwarfs have done all they could, 
and are hindered in their work merely by the 
master's orders. If the master cannot help hin- 
dering them, they are generally pretty patient, 
but when he does so only because he is selfish, 
or because it suits him best not to pay any at- 



44 Yourself 

tention to them, they get very angry. Then they 
take their revenge by growing careless and lazy, 
and doing their work badly, or by making such a 
fuss that the master often feels really ill. 

So, you see, for his own comfort, the master 
should be very careful to see that the waste water 
is always emptied at the right time. If he is 
wise, he soon finds out that by emptying the sac 
or " making water" as it is called, in the morning 
on rising, at noon, and in the evening before go- 
ing to bed, the Bladder Dwarf is apt to be satis- 
fied, and not likely to bother him at other times 
by interrupting him in his work or in his play to 
attend to his affairs. 

Should a message come, however, in spite of 
all this, the master may be pretty sure that he is 
either drinking more than needful, or that there 
is something a little bit out of order in his body, 
and that he must be very kind and patient until 
the Kidney and Bladder Dwarfs get everything 
running nicely again. A good master can help 
them by being very careful about his food and 
drink, taking plenty of exercise, keeping his body 
just warm enough, and by not getting angry, for if 
one is cross, there is more waste water to get rid 
of than when one is pleasant and good tempered. 

19. How to Care for the Little Ones. 
Most boys and girls have smaller brothers and 



How to Care for the Little Ones 45 

sisters whom they often have to look after while 
mother is busy or away. In taking a little child 
to the water-closet, great care and patience 
should be used. Remember that if you keep a 
small child waiting, or if you do not give it time 
enough to empty the waste properly, you are 
doing that child great harm, for you are hinder- 
ing the necessary body work from being done as 
it should. 

Carelessness in this matter may ruin a little 
child's health for life, and may even cause its death. 
So you see how very, very careful you should be. 

Besides using patience and being very clean 
in caring for little ones, you should teach them, 
as soon as possible, to attend to these private 
affairs themselves. 

If you are always careful, if you teach them to 
do this as a duty, if you never allow them to play 
while attending to this matter, and if by every 
word and look, — as well as by the example you 
set them, — you show them how to be clean and 
modest at all times, the little ones, by the time 
they are five or six years old — or even sooner if 
they are very bright — will have learned this 
lesson thoroughly. Then, wherever they go, 
every one will feel sure that they belong to nice 
people, never mind how poor they may be, what 
kind of clothes they may wear, or how little else 
they may have had a chance to learn. 



46 Yourself 

Most mothers, nurses, and elder sisters under- 
stand how important it is for little children to be 
taught these matters from the first. But a few 

very fond and foolish older people think that 
they can best show their great love for baby by 
admiring everything he coes. by repeating his 
speeches and by saying again and again : " Isn't 
our babv too dear, and cute, and innocent for 
anything ! " 

Yes. your baby is all that, and a great deal 
more besides. But if you wish to keep your 
babies dear, and cute, and innocent, you must 
begin very early to train them gently and firmly 
in the way they should go. If you do not, you 
may be shocked some day, by hearing some one 
call your "innocent darling" a '-horrid, dirty 
little brat,'" and by discovering that this remark, 
however coarse, is only too true. 

Babies cannot learn too early to be as clean 
and modest as babies can be. and whether they 
grow up to be nice children, and pure-minded 
and decent men and women, depends greatly 
upon the training they receive during the first 
few years of their lives, and upon the example set 
them by the eider children. 

20. What Older Children Should Know. 

In our last pages we talked about the babies, 
and how to train them to be modest and clean. 



What Older Children Should Know 47 

Now I wish to speak a word to the older 
children. 

Never mind how poorly you may have been 
taught hitherto, you can all begin right now, to 
be clean and modest, and to train yourselves into 
right habits and nice ways of thinking. 

No one, not even the most loving mother, or 
the most clever teacher that ever lived, can train 
you half as well as you can train yourselves, if 
you only choose to do so. Whenever I see 
brave boys or girls take themselves in hand, with 
a mind made up to do what is right, I know 
those children are bound to make the finest kind 
of men or women. Because, such a resolve, kept 
ever in mind, is bound to have good results at 
last. 

Such children deserve the respect of every one, 
and everybody should help them as much as pos- 
sible. It is to the brave child, to the child who 
will do what is right and proper, even if some of 
its playmates and elders laugh, and call him 
" fussy" or " cranky," that I am talking now, for 
I know that cowards never amount to anything, 
until they change and become brave enough to 
face ridicule. 

Careful mothers, who realize how easy it is to 
learn bad or careless ways, and how hard it is 
not to hear what other children may say which 
is not nice, always train their little ones to go 



48 Yourself 

to the water-closet alone, to close the door, and 
not to open it again until they are quite ready to 
be seen by anybody. These parents teach them 
that it is very bad manners to come out of that 
place before their clothes have been all buttoned 
up again, and everything is in good order 
about themselves and about the place they are 
leaving. 

Some years ago, — perhaps when your mammas 
were little girls — it was considered all right for 
two or three little girls to go to the water-closet 
together, or for several little boys to escort one 
another. But now, all the nicer mothers are 
teaching their children to go there alone. Be- 
fore long, this will be so general a custom among 
all the nicely brought up children, that any boy 
or girl who seems at all careless in this matter, 
will be looked down upon as a very vulgar, ill-be- 
haved child, be he rich or poor. 

If you wish to avoid being considered badly 
brought up, and if you wish to do what is right 
and proper, you will from this time on, say very 
firmly and politely to any of your playmates who 
offer to go with you to the bathroom or privy : 
" Please excuse me, but I must be alone for a 
few minutes. I do not wish any company." 

Then you can go in the bathroom or privy 
alone, and close the door behind you. Of 
course, if you have been in the habit of allowing 



What Boys Should Know 49 

other children to go with you until now, they 
may think this very strange. 

In that case you must simply tell them that you 
are never going to allow any one to go with you 
to that place again, because you now know that 
it is a strictly private matter. 

Some of your playmates, and perhaps some of 
the older people who have not read this book 
through, and who do not understand why you do 
this, may make fun of you at first. But you may 
be sure that they cannot help but admire, in 
their hearts, the firmness and modesty of any 
child who will dare to do what is really right and 
proper, never mind what others may say. Later 
on, when they find out how right you were, and 
how wrong they were, they will be very much 
ashamed of themselves, and will wish with all 
their hearts that they had never made fun of you, 
but had always been as brave and modest as you. 

21. What Boys Should Know. 

In the last pages we talked mostly about babies 
and girls, now we are going to speak mostly about 
boys. Every one knows that girls as a rule are 
cleaner and tidier than boys. That is because 
boys play rougher games and are careless how 
they look. 

But, although a boy may not care how dirty he 
gets, or how badly he looks when out at play, he 



$o Yourself 

should remember that it matters greatly at all 
times what he is. He should therefore always 
bear in mind to be the right kind of a boy, so as 
to make sure he will grow up to be the right kind 
of a man. 

When President McKAnley died, every one in 
the United States whose opinion was worth haw- 
ing, thought that the grandest thing which was 
said of him was that he was such a clean-minded 
man that no one ever ventured to tell a bad story 
or make any improper remark in his presence. 

This, I am happy to say, is true of many men 
in our country. But then, too, there are many 
really pure-minded men here, who are not as 
brave as McKinley ? and who do not dare to show 
others by their looks, their manner, or 
necessary, by a few brief words, that they 
not allow others to use improper words or to 
mention improper or private things in their 
hearing. 

McKinley did not wait until he was President 
of the United States to show his disBhe for all 
such low, ill-bred things. He had begun long, 
long before that. A clean-minded man could only 
have been a clean-minded boy; one who loved 
and respected his mother, and who was not will- 
ing to do or hear anything which he would not 
like her to know. 

Boys who wish to grow up to deserve such 



What Boys Should Know $i 

high praise as that, must begin right now. Al- 
though every boy cannot become President, you 
can all be good, true, clean-minded men, if you 
choose to do so. 

A boy who wishes to grow up to deserve the 
respect of everybody must begin by respecting 
himself, and he can do so only when his conscience 
tells him that he is doing what is right and that 
he is worthy of respect. 

Even a boy of five ought to know that he must 
attend to the calls of the garbage can and the 
waste water dwarfs only in private. Whenever 
it is possible, he should, even at the cost of some 
time and trouble, go to the place provided for 
that purpose. Many boys are far from careful or 
modest about this matter, but if they knew what 
older people, and especially what girls and women 
think of their carelessness, they would blush red- 
der than any flower that ever grew, and hide their 
heads in bitter shame. 

When they are still very little, people blame 
their mothers severely, but you can easily imagine 
how shocked and mortified some of those poor 
mothers would be, if they knew that their dear 
boys were behaving more like dogs than like hu- 
man beings I 

When such careless boys grow up, they are 
likely to forget themselves, merely because they 
have gotten into bad habits. That is the reason 



<, 2 Yourself 

why there are so many men whom gentlemanly 
men call brutes, although the brutes are really not 
half as bad, for they know no better. 

Another thing which boys should be more care- 
ful about, is getting undressed on the bank of a 
river or brook, and going in swimming without 
bathing tights. In cities, boys who are of so 
low a class, and so lost to all sense of decency 
and shame as to do that, are arrested. 

In country towns, where policemen are few, 
those who offend thus against the laws of decency, 
are seldom punished. That is to say, they are 
not arrested, but I know of more than one boy 
who is no longer invited to certain nice houses, 
simply because some older member of the family 
learned that he was not careful enough in these 
matters to be trustworthy. 

It is not always easy for a boy to find a house 
near the river or pond where he can undress. 
But every boy can look carefully around, to make 
sure he is not in sight of any house or any party 
of pleasure seekers. 

Besides, he can surely find a clump of bushes, 
a pile of lumber, a heap of rocks, or a tree trunk, 
behind which he can stand while undressing and 
dressing. It is always easy for a boy to carry his 
bathing tights in his pocket, and a boy who goes 
in bathing without them, in any place where he is 
at all likely to be seen by any one, shows that he 



•v The Pumping Twins $3 

has none of the fine feelings which go to make a 
gentleman. 

There are some men who merely laugh at such 
matters and say: " Oh I Boys will be boys." 
But gentlemanly men declare that " Boys can be 
boys, but they do not need to be pigs 1 " Yes ; 
you can be boys, and nice boys too, and can 
have plenty of the kind of fun that will always 
linger in your minds without bringing a blush to 
your cheeks. But the only way to do so, is to 
remember never to do anything which you would 
not be willing to tell your mother or to let her 
see. 

22. The Pumping Twins. 

You have already heard of several of the smart 
little servants who live in your house and work 
for you night and day as long as you live. They 
do not ask for any wages or holidays, and keep 
cheerful and active as long as you treat them 
kindly, and do not hinder them too much in their 
work. 

Now I am going to tell you about the Twin 
Dwarfs, who live in the pumping station. They, 
too, are very busy little servants, and if you put 
your ear down on any one's chest, just a little 
below the left breast, you can easily hear these 
two little dwarfs working busily night and day. 

The pumping station is also called the heart. 



54 Yourself 

Although it is only as big as your fist, it is divided 
into four small rooms, in which a great deal of 
work is done, as you are going to see. There is 
a thin but strong wall running right through the 
middle of the heart, or pumping station, and as 
there is no opening of any kind in this wall, the 
twins, who live on either side of it, never catch a 
glimpse of each other. Still, they can hear each 
other, exchange telegrams, and their duties are so 
very much alike that they are real twins in every 
way. 

On the left side of the heart, at the top there 
is a little room, into which a big pipe pours 
bright, red blood. When this room is full of 
blood, the Pumping Dwarf, who lives on that 
side of the heart, opens a little trap-door in the 
floor and lets the blood flow down into a bigger 
room just below it, whose walls are very elastic 
indeed. 

When all the blood has flowed down, the 
Dwarf closes the door again, and begins to tug 
at some ropes which draw the elastic walled room 
together, very much in the same way as you 
squeeze a rubber bulb in your hand. 

Of course, the blood which the room contains 
has to go somewhere, and as the doors above are 
shut tight, and it cannot go back into the upper 
room, it rushes quickly down into a big pipe in 
one corner of the lower room, making a roaring 



The Pumping Twins <><, 

noise which you can hear if you listen very closely 
with your ear against some -one's chest. 

The blood thus forced out of the lower room 
by Pumping Dwarf number one, flows swiftly 
along the big tube which soon divides into two 
smaller branches. These, in turn, break up into 
two more, which both split up before long, and 
so it goes on, each tube being just a little smaller 
than the one before, until at last the tubes get to 
be finer than the finest hair. 

"When the Pumping Dwarf has emptied his 
lower chamber, he takes a wee rest while the 
upper chamber fills up once more. Then he 
starts up, opens the door, closes it again, tugs at 
his ropes, and sends a new roomful of blood 
down into the big tube. 

Night and day the Pumping Dwarf works, 
resting only between each squeeze, and he is so 
steady and reliable that you can hear him work- 
ing away almost as regularly as a clock ticks. 
He is so faithful, that the master does not need 
to remind him of his duty, or to send him any 
orders. In fact, the master can go to sleep, feel- 
ing quite sure that the Pumping Dwarf will go 
on working just as steadily as if he were watched 
every minute. 

The Pumping Dwarf works on so steadily, not 
only because he is a good servant, but because 
he knows that new blood is needed in all the 



$6 Yourself 

different parts of the body every second. He is 
aware of the fact that you need more blood when 
you are running, than when you are sitting still, 
and more when you are awake than when you are 
asleep ; so he pumps more or less fast to keep up 
the supply. 

23. The Blood-Boats. 

You may wonder why it is so very important 
that fresh blood should go to all parts of the body 
so often, and I am going to try and explain it so 
that you will be sure to understand. You have 
all seen blood, and so you all know that it looks 
very much like bright red water. Still, none of 
you have sharp enough eyes to see what wise 
doctors have found out by means of their micro- 
scopes. That is that blood is really made of 
several things. 

Here is a little glass bottle. It is quite empty 
so you can see right through it. Now I am go- 
ing to fill it with pure water. You can still see 
through the bottle, can you not ? And, if I hold 
it far enough away, you cannot feel quite sure 
whether it is full or empty, because clear water 
and clean glass look very much alike at a dis- 
tance. 

I am now going to drop all these tiny red glass 
beads into the bottle. See, it is quite full of 
them, although there is still a little water between 



The Blood-Boats <ft 

and around the beads. If I hold the bottle far 
enough away from you, you won't notice the 
water at all, but the bottle will look just as if it 
were filled with some red liquid. 

Next, we will empty the bottle, and fill it again 
with water and red beads, but putting in one 
white glass bead to every three hundred red ones. 
If I hold the bottle far away, you won't notice 
either the water or the white beads, and it will 
still look just as if the bottle were full of red 
liquid. But, if I bring it near enough to your 
eyes, you will be able to see the water, and even 
to count the red and white beads. 

It is just the same with our blood. All the 
blood in our bodies is made up of a yellowish 
kind of water, in which float many, many red and 
white things shaped something like beads. The 
red ones are so many, and lie so close together in 
the yellow water, that they make it look red, just 
as the water in the bottle looked red when many 
red beads were in it, and I held it at a distance. 

The little red beads in the blood are so very 
tiny, that no human eye has ever been sharp 
enough to see them, but a microscope shows 
them very plainly. As you know, the red and 
white glass beads in the bottle are all hard and 
lifeless, but each of the little red or white beads 
in our blood is soft and alive. In fact, each one 
of them is something like a little boat, for it 



58 Yourself 

floats rapidly along in the watery part of the 
blood, carrying a load of food and air to all the 
different parts of the body. 

Since the blood beads or boats are so very 
small that you cannot see them without the help 
of a microscope, you can readily understand what 
very small loads of food and air they carry. But, 
there are so very many of them, and they travel 
so very fast, that small as they are, they manage 
to carry plenty of food, air, and other building 
materials to all parts of the body, so that it can 
be kept in good repair and even made to grow. 

24. How the Blood-Boats Load and Unload. 

The little blood-boats are so clever at loading 
and unloading, that they can, give up all their 
good food and air, and take up the waste material 
and bad air in exchange, without stopping long 
enough for us to notice it. Besides, they float 
along so swiftly, that wise doctors have found out 
that it takes much less than five minutes for the 
blood-boats to sail through many, many feet of 
tubing, reach the furthest part of the body, un- 
load, load up again, and get back to their start- 
ing-place. 

You have heard how the big tube, starting 
from the heart, divides up again and again. The 
blood-ships, instead of sailing ever so many side 
by side in a broad river, finally have to pass single 



How the Blood-Boats Load and Unload $9 

file down tiny canals. In fact some blood canals 
are so tiny, and they are so numerous, that you can 
hardly run the finest needle into any part of your 
body without piercing one of them, and thus 
causing blood to flow out. 

After the pipes leading from the heart have 
divided up until they cannot divide any more, the 
blood-boats pass into a new set of pipes, which 
do just the contrary. They are tiny and numer- 
ous at first, but two keep joining into one, until 
they get bigger and bigger, as they draw near the 
heart once more. 

All the blood-boats which were sent out from 
the heart always come back to it after giving up 
their loads of air and food. They come back 
laden with bad air and refuse, and meet many 
other boats coming up from the liver and bowels 
laden with food to use. 

As you know, a ship leaving port is generally 
freshly painted, neat and clean, and fully loaded. 
But a ship coming back to port, after a long 
journey, often looks dingy, battered and untidy. 
Before it can start out on a new journey, it needs 
to be repaired, cleaned and painted, — or over- 
hauled, — as sailors generally call it. 

It is just the same with the little ships in our 
blood. They are clean and look bright and red 
when they begin their journey ; but by the time 
they have carried their cargo to the place where 



60 Yourself 

it belongs, and brought back a load of refuse, 
they are so battered and dirty and dingy, that the 
stream in which they float, instead of looking 
bright red, seems dark red or purplish in hue. 

In fact, the change in the color of the little 
blood-ships is so great, that people generally say 
that the blood which Dwarf Number One sends 
out is red, while the blood which comes back to 
Dwarf Number Two is blue. 

2$. Pumping Dwarf Number Two. 

When the blood-ships come back dingy, worn 
and laden with refuse, the stream in which they 
float pours right down into the top room on the 
right side of the heart wall. When this room is 
full of blood, the second Twin Dwarf opens his 
trap-door in the floor, and lets it flow down 
into the lower room. This is exactly like the 
room on the other side of the wall, and Dwarf 
Number Two also has ropes to pull so that he 
can squeeze the" bluish blood into a big pipe too. 

But, this time, it is dirty blood which flows 
out, and before it can do any more work it has 
to be cleaned. The place where this is done is 
the lungs, about which we will talk more further 
on. Just now, it is enough for you to know 
that in the lungs, each little ship will not only be 
cleaned and repaired, but relieved of its load of 
refuse, given nice fresh air and food to carry, 



What Makes the Twins Cross 61 

> 

and sent back to the Pumping Station, where 
Dwarf Number One will start it out again on a 
new journey. 

It is because the little blood-boats float around 
and around — in a ring as it were, or in a circuit, 
— that people are in the habit of saying that the 
blood circulates all through the body. They call 
this complete round made by the blood, the cir- 
culation. 

When the little Dwarfs are both in a good 
temper, and work briskly, and when the little 
ships are all in good repair and nicely loaded, the 
master of the house knows that all is well ; so he 
often says that his circulation is good, for he 
feels just warm enough and well and happy. 

But when the little Pumping Dwarfs are in a 
bad temper, when they do not do their work 
well, or when the little ships are not properly 
cleaned, repaired and loaded, the master knows 
that all is wrong ; then he complains that his cir- 
culation is poor, that he feels too cold or too 
hot and is sick and unhappy. 

26. What Makes the Twins Cross. 
It may be that some of you wonder what can 
make the Twin Pumping Dwarfs cross. Well, I 
can tell you. They never object to hard work, 
and will plod on, provided the master sees to it 
that there is enough good food and air to load 



62 Yourself 

the boats. The Dwarfs are even ready to work 
faster every once in a while, provided their mas- 
ter wishes to enjoy a little run. 

But, if they have to keep on tugging at their 
ropes without getting any chance at all to snatch 
their wee rest between times, or if they are work- 
ing so hard merely to send out half-laden blood- 
boats, they are very apt to get angry. 

Sometimes they send telegrams up to the mas- 
ter saying : " Here ! you had better be a little 
careful ! It won't do to strain this delicate ma- 
chinery. It can get out of order, you know ; 
and if it gets badly out of order, neither you nor 
the wisest doctor who ever lived can get it right 
again ! Don't you think you ought to give us a 
wee chance to rest ? If you don't, we may strike 
and refuse to work at all. You know that if we 
do not send fresh blood to all your servants, and 
to all parts of your house, to keep it clean and in 
good repair, no work can be done in it. It will 
all go to pieces, and then you will have to move 
out, whether you are ready to go or not ! " 

Or else they say : " Why don't you eat whole- 
some things, and breathe plenty of nice fresh air > 
You know it is your business to do so, and that 
if you do not, the blood-boats cannot be properly 
loaded. Here we are working away night and 
day, sending them out only half loaded ! 

"They certainly are not carrying food and air 



> How to Treat a Cut 65 

enough to keep your servants in a good temper, 
neither are there building materials enough to 
keep your house in good repair, let alone to 
make it as big as it should be, to suit your wants. 
Can't you use a little common sense, and look 
after things a little better > After all, you will 
suffer most in the end if all does not go right, so 
do try and be sensible I " 

The master should realize that what the Twin 
Servants say is perfectly true, and that as he can 
occupy the house only as long as their pumps are 
working nicely, he had better pay good attention 
to their warnings. If he is wise, therefore, he 
will see that there is enough good food and air 
to load all the blood-boats, and he will stop run- 
ning, jumping, or overtaxing himself, whenever 
the Dwarfs call to his notice that their poor ma- 
chinery is thumping too hard in its efforts to send 
the blood-boats along fast enough to do all the 
work he wishes. 

27. How to Treat a Cut: 
The pipes leading to and from the heart, run 
under your skin in all directions. Most of the 
bigger pipes are so far inside that you cannot see 
them, but a few run near enough to the surface 
to enable you to trace their course. In all the 
pipes coming from the heart, you can generally 
feel, or hear, the thumping of the pump. 



64 }';:.-:;./ 

When a doctor wishes to know whether your 
Pumping Dwarfs are in a good temper, he always 
lays his fingers on a certain sp:: in your wrist. 
There he feels the blood run through a pipe, and 
he can count the strokes of the little pump. 

He knows just how many times the Dwarfs 
should pull their ropes every minute, and by 
" feeiing your puise." as :: is caiied, he finds out 
whether they are doing their cszy. I: the pulse 
beats too fast, he knows you have been overex- 
erting yourself, or that you have a fever ; if it 
beats too slowly, that the Dwarfs are cross be- 
cause the blood-boats are not properly loaded, or 
because there is not liquid enough to Gil the little 
rooms as often as they would like. 

When you cut yourself, you can tell by the 
color, and especially by the way it flows, whether 
it is nice 'new blood which is streaming from the 
wound, or whether it is old. used-up blood. If 
the blood is on its way from the heart and is 
new, it will look bright red and will flow in jets 
or spurts, each coming with the tug which 
Dwarf Number One gives to his ropes. 

In that case, yon should hold the cut in such a 
way that the blood would have to run up hill to 
reach it from the heart. That will check the 
flow a trifle. 

If it is a very deep cut, which bleeds hard, 
hold your hand or finger over the place so as to 



How to Treat a Cut 6$ 

stop the blood from flowing. Then tie, or get 
some one else to tie, a handkerchief, cord, or 
bandage very tightly over the cut. Next, run a 
pencil, or a bit of stick, in this bandage, and turn 
it around and around in the way your mother or 
teacher will show you. Every turn you give the 
stick will serve to make the bandage tighter, and 
by and by, it will press so hard on the pipes 
under the skin, that it will stop the blood from 
flowing, until a clot can form, and act as a cork 
to stop up the hole. 

If the blood flows in jets, it is always best to 
send for a doctor right away, so that he can 
bandage the wound properly. But you must al- 
ways try to stop the bleeding as I have explained, 
without waiting until he comes. You must not 
wait for the doctor to do it, because when the 
blood flows in jets it has to be checked at once, 
or the wounded person may bleed to death. 

If the blood from any cut is dark red and flows 
evenly, you may be sure that it is worn out 
blood, on its way back to the heart. It does not 
matter so much therefore, if you do lose a little 
of that. To stop its flow you can tie a bandage 
in the same way as I described, and the blood 
will soon stop flowing. If it is a very big and 
deep cut, draw the two sides as closely together 
as you can before you tie it up, then send for the 
doctor so that he can sew it up. 



66 Yourself 

Except in the case of very bad cuts or wounds, 
the blood on coming against the air, soon grows 
thick enough to form a clot which stops up the 
opening, prevents the loss of any more blood, and 
finally helps to heal the injured part, where all 
the little white boats now hurry with new build- 
ing materials. 

Any child who gets a bad fall or knock, can 
greatly lessen the pain, and prevent an ugly 
black-and-blue mark by wetting a folded cloth in 
hot water, and laying it on the spot. The water 
must be just as hot as one can bear it, and the 
cloth must be changed very often, so as to keep 
very hot water all the time on the hurt. 

The heat brings the blood to this place, as you 
can easily see, for it gets very red. Then the 
little blood-boats all come rushing there in a 
hurry, laden with food and air, and they quickly 
give up their loads. The white boats come too, 
and thus the damage is repaired as quickly as 
possible. 

28. How We Breathe. 

When we talked of the front door, in the be- 
ginning of this book, we said that air could easily 
come into the house through the mouth, and that 
there was an air-tube or stairway running down 
into the body just in front of the food tube or 
stairway. It is about this air, or windpipe, as it 



How We Breathe 67 

is also called, that you are going to learn 
to-day. 

All houses need a great deal of nice fresh air. 
Ordinary houses can be kept full of pure air, or 
well ventilated, as it is called, if all the windows 
are opened wide every morning, and if some of 
them are left partly open during the rest of the 
time in the rooms where people sit or sleep. 

But your body needs fresh air every second al- 
most. If you stopped breathing for more than a 
minute, you would feel very uncomfortable in- 
deed, and if no new air at all came into your 
little house for about five minutes, you would 
have to move out, and all your body would surely 
die. 

Because you need air while you are eating, it 
is not always possible to breathe through the 
mouth. A way was therefore provided so that 
you need never fall short of your air supply. 
This way is through the nose. The nose is really 
the chimney of your little house. If all is well, 
the two nostrils, — air-passages, or pipes in your 
nose, — are always wide open. The air from 
outside rushes into these narrow passages, which 
open down into your throat. 

The air on coming into these passages is 
warmed a little, and as it passes through the fine 
hairs growing inside the nostrils, all the bits of 
dust, and little shreds of cotton and down are 
caught fast, and not allowed to go down into the 



68 Yourself 

body. They are not wanted there, and would 
do much mischief, so the little hairs are always 
on guard to prevent their going down. The air 
also passes over wet cushions, all covered with 
fine skin ; under this skin run many, many little 
nerves. They keep close watch over every 
breath of air that comes in, and telegraph up to 
the big central station, in the top of the head, re- 
porting just how this air feels to them. 

Because these tiny nerves enable people to 
smell, they are very useful indeed. Any air 
which smells bad, is sure not to be good for the 
body. If the air smells fresh and clean, it is just 
right. Strongly perfumed air, even when we 
like the odor, is not good for us. Some people 
maybe strong enough to bear it without great 
discomfort, but strong smells of any kind, are 
very likely to make babies or sickly people very 
ill. 

29. About Choking. 

When the air has been sifted by the fine hairs, 
and tried by passing over the moist cushions in 
the nostrils, it is allowed to turn down into the 
back of the mouth and rush down the throat, or 
windpipe. That always stands wide open, ex- 
cept when food has to pass over it on its way to 
the food staircase. 

Then, as you know, the little doorkeeper at 



> About Choking 69 

the head of the windpipe shuts his trap-door, for 
nothing but air is wanted down in the windpipe. 

Sometimes, when people talk or laugh while 
they are eating, or when they are not careful, 
both air and food try to get down-stairs at the 
same time. This always makes trouble, for if the 
little trap-door is not tightly closed when food 
passes over it, a few crumbs are likely to tumble 
down into the windpipe. 

When this happens, there is a big fuss down 
there. The gatekeeper is frightened, for he 
knows that if any food gets down into the breath- 
ing room, the lungs or bellows of the body won't 
be able to use it or get rid of it, and that it will 
make them so sore and uncomfortable that they 
may stop work entirely. 

He therefore quickly sends a telegram down 
the windpipe, which is all lined with hundreds of 
little fans or whips. As soon as news is received 
that something is coming down which is not 
wanted there, all these little fans or whips begin 
to fan or whip upward. 

The crumb or dust is therefore caught on its 
way downward, and fanned, or batted, up-stairs 
again. But all this causes such a to-do in the 
windpipe, that you hear a noise like coughing or 
choking. This is kept up, until the stray bit of 
food or dust has been driven right out of the 
windpipe again. 



70 Yourself 

Very little children, who are too small to un- 
derstand all that you have learned about the air 
and food pipes, often talk or laugh while they are 
eating. Then they choke. In their distress they 
generally double up and bend over forward while 
they are coughing. This is not best for them, 
because the straighter the windpipe is kept, the 
quicker the little fans or whips can bat the crumbs 
or dust out again. 

Grown people, therefore, often point quickly 
up at the ceiling, saying: "Oh! Look at the 
little bird I " Most children are so eager to see 
a bird, that although they may be coughing very 
hard they quickly tip their heads back to look 
up. 

This is the very best thing which can happen, 
for the crumb or dust can then fly right up, and 
the coughing stops. It is only when looking up 
won't answer, that one should slap a choking 
child on the back. Then, a pretty hard thump 
will help to drive the stuff up again, but as chil- 
dren do not understand why you slap them, this 
always seems rather an unkind way to end the 
trouble. 

You may think that it is very wrong to say : 
" See the bird up there I " when you know per- 
fectly well that there is no bird near the ceiling 
at all. But in a case like this, you are merely 
fooling the child for a minute for his own good. 



The Speaking Dwarf 71 

Most children too small to understand why you 
made them look up, will be quite satisfied if you 
say : " Oh, can't you see any bird ? I don't see 
any either, so perhaps it has gone away." 

When they are a little older, they will under- 
stand that it was not really a lie you told, and 
they will be glad to make use of this simple plan 
to save some other poor little tot from the pain 
which a bad choking fit often causes. 

When I was too small to understand about the 
food pipe and the windpipe, my papa used to 
help me by making me look up for the little bird, 
and when I asked why I coughed so hard, he 
used to say in fun, if it happened on a week day : 
" Perhaps it was because you made a mistake and 
tried to swallow down your Sunday throat I " If 
it happened on a Sunday, he always said : 
11 Hello, why do you try to use your week day 
throat on Sunday r" 

This always made me laugh and thus kept me 
from crying. But just as soon as I grew big 
enough to understand, I was told all about the 
pipes, and learned that the Sunday and week day 
throat story was only a bit of nice fun and non- 
sense. 

30. The Speaking Dwarf. 

In the place in your throat where you can feel 
a lump, there is a kind of box. All across this 



72 Yourself 

box are stretched elastic cords, called muscles. 
We will make believe that a Speaking Dwarf 
lives in this box, and pulls these muscles apart to 
let the air in. Then he draws them more or less 
shut when the air comes out. If the master has 
nothing to say, the Dwarf leaves the muscles 
open, so that the air can pass in and out freely. 
But if the master wants to talk, the Dwarf quickly 
places the muscles in such a way that the air 
shakes them more or less hard. 

N o w those muscles are very like an elastic band , 
which you twang when it is tightly stretched. You 
know that such bands give forth different sounds, 
according to the way in which they are stretched. 
The Speaking Dwarf is so very clever, that he 
knows just exactly how to handle these muscles 
or bands, so as to give the kinds of sounds his 
master wishes. 

If the air which comes down into the speaking- 
box is very cold or damp, it is bad for these deli- 
cate muscles. It often makes them so sore, that 
they get red and swollen. When such a thing 
happens, the Speaking Dwarf can no longer make 
them give out nice clear sounds, and then people 
often say: "How very hoarse that child is 1 
Why, she must have a sore throat." 

If you want to save trouble and stay well, you 
should always keep your mouth shut, and breathe 
only through your nose. Then, no dust, no 



- The Speaking Dwarf 73 

> 

food, and no damp or cold air can get down into 
your speaking-box, to make the muscles sore. 
But if you cannot breathe easily through your 
nose, you really ought to see a doctor; he will 
find out what is wrong and perhaps he can set it 
right. 

After passing through the speaking-box, the air 
goes still further down the tube. Near the bone, 
which you can feel across the top of your chest, 
and which is called the collar-bone, this tube 
divides into two branches, both of which lead 
down into the lungs, which are fine bellows. 

The lungs (or lights as the butcher calls them), 
are two big lumps of pink, sponge-like flesh. 
They fill up all the space inside the chest which 
is not taken up by the heart, or by the tubes 
which we have already talked about. 

You have surely seen how a dry sponge can 
suck up water, and swell out bigger and bigger, 
the more water it holds. Well, the lungs act 
very much in the same manner, only they suck 
up air. When you draw as long a breath as you 
can, your lungs suck up so much air, and swell 
out so big, that your chest is not large enough to 
hold them, and has to widen out as far as it can. 

Whenever your chest spreads out in that way, 
some bones, called ribs (which you can feel), 
rise up a little to give more room. A big band 
of muscle, which divides the chest into an upper 



74 Yourself 

and lower story, and stretches between the heart 
and lungs above, and the stomach and liver be- 
neath, flattens out when you draw a long breath. 
Of course, that helps to make more space for the 
lungs ; but, at the same time it crowds the 
stomach, liver and bowels further downward. 
Then, the skin over the abdomen, or belly, has 
to stretch a little so as to make room enough for 
them. If your clothes are as loose as they should 
be, you can easily feel your chest and sides 
swell out, whenever you draw in just as much air 
as you can hold. 

If you want to have a fine broad chest, so that 
you can sing, speak, walk, and run, well and 
easily, it is a good plan to take as long breaths 
as you can, whenever you are sure the air is good 
and pure. 

A person who breathes nothing but pure air, 
draws deep breaths as often as possible, and who 
never wears clothes tight enough to prevent the 
chest and sides from swelling out as much as they 
please, is sure to be very strong and well, unless 
something else is very wrong somewhere in his 
little house. 

31. Where the Blood-Boats Get Their Air. 

The air, which rushes down into the lungs, 
fills every one of the little holes in them. All 
around these small holes there is a fine network 



Where, the Blood-Boats Get Their Air 7$ 

■v 

of tiny little tubes. In these little tubes float the 
blood-boats all laden with bad air, and refuse. 
As they pass along they cleverly unload all the 
bad air, get rid of their refuse, and take good air 
in exchange. 

They do this so very quickly and neatly, that 
by the time you cannot hold your breath any 
longer, all the boats then in the lungs are ready 
to sail back to the heart, from where they will 
begin a new journey. Then the band of muscle 
which had been forced down, springs back again, 
like an elastic when you let go of it, and as it 
rises and the ribs sink, the lungs are squeezed so 
that they can no longer hold all the air in them, 
and blow it up-stairs again. 

As the lungs have given a large part of the 
good air to the little blood-boats, and taken bad 
air and refuse in exchange, they are very glad to 
get rid of it in this way. 

When the bad air and the refuse is sent up the 
windpipe, all the little whips help to drive it out 
of the body through the mouth and nose. We 
know that this air is no longer good and fresh, 
because if you breathe into a bottle, in which a 
live mouse, or bird, or other small animal has 
been placed, the bad air soon makes them faint, 
and if they were left in it they would surely die. 

All the air we breathe out contains a kind of 
gas which is bad for us, but which the plants 



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Where the Blood-Boats Get Their Air jj 

where many people are sitting, you will notice 
right away how bad the air smells, and that it 
makes you pant and gasp just as if you had been 
running. 

If you are sitting in a room where the air be- 
comes bad, you may not notice it by the smell, 
but your cheeks will soon get red and hot, you 
will feel sleepy and stupid, and your head will 
ache. All this is because there is not fresh air 
enough in the room to keep your blood-boats 
nicely loaded, and because all the servants down 
below are grumbling hard, and giving you a head- 
ache, so as to call your attention to the fact that 
something is wrong. 

You know that your Pumping Dwarfs cannot 
go and open a window, or run out of doors where 
there is plenty of air to be had I But if the mas- 
ter of the house is wise, he looks after his serv- 
ants' comfort, by paying great attention to the 
kind of air he breathes. He also keeps a window 
open in his room at night, changes the air in the 
house often by opening both door and windows 
wide, and never stays in a place where he feels 
that the air is bad. 

Some people, who do not know about the little 
blood-boats, the big bellows, and the Pumping 
Dwarfs, fancy that as long as you can breathe at 
all, everything is all right. They seldom open 
their windows, and were it not that fresh air will 



78 Yourself 

steal in through every crack in the doors, floors, 
windows and walls, and that it rushes up and 
down the chimneys, these foolish people would 
soon contrive to kill themselves. 

As it is, they are not nearly as healthy, strong, 
or happy, as they would be if they had plenty of 
fresh air ; neither can they study or work half as 
well, or enjoy their play as much. In fact, all 
doctors will tell you that bad air not only makes 
people feel badly, but makes them very cross, 
stupid, and sometimes even wicked. They say 
that even little children are often fretful and 
naughty, merely because their poor little bodies 
do not get enough fresh air. 

32. How Bad Air Kills. 

Once upon a time, during a war in India, one 
hundred and forty-six English prisoners were 
locked up in a place, so very small, that there 
was scarcely room enough for them to stand up 
in it. They were driven into this room at the 
sword's point and then the door was shut tight. 

It is very hot in India, and as there were only 
two small windows in this room, the captives 
breathed up all the good air in a few seconds. 
Then they began to pant and gasp, struggled to 
get near the windows, and tried to break down 
the strong door ; but all in vain. 

They were kept until morning in this awful 



How Bad Air Kills 79 

> 

place, which was known as the Black Hole. 
When the guards opened the door, all but twenty- 
three of the poor prisoners had died from lack of 
air, and these twenty-three were so weak and ill 
that they never got well again. 

You can see by this true story, how very dan- 
gerous it is to stay in places where the air cannot 
be changed often enough. Even if you do not 
die, like these poor prisoners, you are breathing 
bad air, the very air your lungs blew out as unfit 
for use. 

You would rightly think it horrid if any one 
tried to drink dirty water or to eat swill, but it is 
just as nasty to breathe bad air, even though you 
cannot see how bad it looks. 

Now there are many people in this world, who 
are very clean and particular about everything, 
except about the air they breathe. Some of 
these people are afraid to open the windows and 
change the air, because they say they catch cold 
so easily. But if they opened their windows 
often enough, and breathed nothing but fresh 
air, they would soon grow so much stronger that 
they would cease to catch cold so easily. They 
get sick, simply because the little blood-boats 
cannot get enough air to carry to all the different 
parts of the body so as to keep them in first-class 
order. 

People who breathe the same air over and over 



80 Yourself 

again, are, besides, running the risk of catching 
some dreadful disease. For, with the air, the 
lungs blow out tiny seeds or germs of sickness. 
These are far too small to be seen, and if there 
were plenty of fresh air in the room, they would 
rise up to the ceiling, float out of the windows, 
be caught up by the wind, and carried high up in 
the air, where the hot sun would soon kill them. 

If these germs cannot get out of the room, 
they are apt to be drawn into the lungs of any 
person who is not very well. There they are 
sure to grow, and to make that person very ill 
with scarlet fever, diphtheria, or whatever the 
disease may be. If the person does not catch 
the disease, it is only because the little blood- 
boats can still manage to carry enough good air 
to keep the body well. 

The worst air in any room is always near the 
ceiling and near the floor, and the best in the 
space between. That is the reason why it is far 
wiser never to sleep on the floor or on too low a 
bed. But if you open your windows top and 
bottom, all the bad air in the room can escape, 
while fresh air takes its place. 

Little babies suffer even more from bad air 
than older children, so if you want your little 
brothers and sisters to thrive, you should always 
be willing to take them out whenever mamma 
wishes. If they are out every nice sunny day, 



How Bad Air Kills 81 

> 

and if the room in which they play or sleep is al- 
ways well aired, they will be rosy and happy, and 
will be much easier to manage. 

Of course, babies catch cold very easily, and 
must therefore be carefully guarded from all 
draughts ; but if the air they breathe is always 
pure, they are far less likely to take cold. When- 
ever it is too stormy to take baby out, you should 
carry him into another room while you open the 
windows wide. 

If for any reason you have to stay in that one 
room, you can wrap baby up, just as if you were 
going to take him out, and then throw the win- 
dows and door wide open. In a few minutes 
the room will be well aired, and if you remove 
baby's wraps, little by little, after the windows 
are all closed, he will not be chilly, and you will 
both feel much brighter for the change of air. 

Very few children, even among the rich, get 
air enough, and still air is free to everybody, and 
does not cost a cent. The poorest person who 
ever lived can have all the air there is, if only 
willing to take the trouble to get it. If you live 
in a crowded city, it is not as easy to get fresh 
air as if you live out in the country. But even 
in the city, houses have doors and windows, and 
people can generally go up on the flat roofs. 
Besides, all who can walk, can go out into the 
parks, where good pure air can always be found. 



82 Yourself 

33. The Need of Air. 

Sick people need a great deal of fresh air ; the 
more they get, the quicker they are likely to be 
well again* Still, in some sicknesses, one has 
to be very careful not to let the cold air blow 
in upon the bed, although the patient must have 
fresh air all the time. To make sure of this, you 
can either open the window in the next room 
(keeping the door open between), or you can 
tack some thin cloth over an old fly screen, set 
it in the window frame, and open the window. 
The air can then sift slowly through the cloth, 
and you will thus secure enough without hurting 
even a sick person. 

There was once a doctor, who had a dear little 
girl. She met with a terrible accident, which hurt 
her back so badly, that she had to lie still all the 
time. She could move her hands and arms a 
little, but was unable to go out to drive, or to be 
rolled around in a chair or carriage, because the 
least little jar made her suffer greatly. 

Her father loved her very dearly, took the best 
care of her, and gave her everything that love or 
money could find to please her. She had a beau- 
tiful room, nurses who watched over her night 
and day, and the best food and medicine. 

In spite of all this, the poor little maid grew 
thinner and thinner, and paler and paler, until 
her father's heart ached. One day he found 



* The Need of Air 83 

> 

her as white as a sheet, and so cross and hard 
to please that the nurse said with tears in her 
yes : " What shall I do, sir, nothing suits her, 
nothing amuses her, and she cries nearly all the 
time 1 " 

The father, almost in despair, said: "Poor 
little thing, it is because she has been shut up in 
the house so long. If she could only go out 
driving, it would be much better, for then she 
could have plenty of sun and air." 

Looking out of the window while he spoke, 
the thought suddenly came to him that if his little 
daughter were carried out into the garden every 
day it might yet do her good. 

So he had a nice little corner fixed up for her, 
and had her carried out there every fine day. At 
first, she stayed out only for a couple of hours, 
in the middle of the day ; but when her father 
noticed that she always seemed more comfortable, 
and was less hard to amuse when out of doors 
than when in the house, he let her stay there all 
day long. 

By the end of summer, the color had come 
back to her cheeks, and she was a very different 
little girl from the white-faced, peevish one I 
have told you about. 

But her father was troubled whenever he 
thought of the coming winter. Finally he de- 
cided to try a new experiment. He had a nice 



84 Yourself 

fur coat and hood made for his little daughter ; 
bought her fur mittens, and wrapped her up in 
thick fur rugs. Then bottles of hot water were 
tucked in here and there around her to keep her 
warm. Thus, she was able to sit out in the 
garden even on the coldest winter days. 

With all her books and playthings around her, 
she was very happy out there, and as it was much 
too cold for her nurse to sit beside her, she 
told her to run into the house, and spent a good 
part of the time there alone, playing by herself. 
Of course, some one was always very near by, 
ready to come whenever she called, or rang her 
little silver bell, and her papa always stopped for 
a little chat with her on his way to and from his 
carriage, so that she should not feel lonely. 

The doctor's neighbors, who had been away 
all summer, and who did not suppose that the 
poor child would ever be out again, were greatly 
surprised to see her lying out there in the garden 
when they looked out of their windows one day 
late in the fall. 

They were surprised and greatly shocked when 
they noticed that she was all alone a good part of 
the time. Soon they began to say that it was 
dreadfully cruel to neglect a poor sick child in 
that way, and to leave her outdoors so late in 
the season. But every fine day the little maid 
was carried out there, and as it grew colder and 



* The Need of Air 8$ 

> 
colder, the neighbors became more and more in- 
dignant. 

When the first snow began to fall, and no one 
came to carry her into the house, these neighbors 
could not stand it any longer, and one of them 
ran over to the doctor's office crying indignantly : 
11 How can you treat that poor helpless child so 
cruelly?" The doctor gently asked her what 
she meant, and when she had explained, he 
smiled and said: " You saw my little daughter 
last winter, when we always kept her in a nice 
warm room and never let a breath of cold air 
blow upon her. Do you remember how pale 
and weak she was, how she cried and fretted, 
how poorly she slept, how little she ate, and how 
much trouble it was to amuse her or make her 
smile ? " 

44 Yes, indeed ! " said the woman, li and I ad- 
mired your patience. I used to say you were 
the kindest father I had ever seen 1 And now, 
to think of your treating the poor litle thing so, 
leaving her out there alone in the snow ! " 

44 Well, come out there with me, and see 
whether you think I had better have her taken 
in," was all the answer the doctor gave her. 

They went out together, and when the lady 
drew near enough to see the child plainly, she 
was amazed to perceive a laughing, rosy-cheeked, 
bright-eyed, little face peep out from all those 



86 Yourself 

furs, and to hear a merry little voice cry out: 
"Oh, papal it is too lovely for anything to be 
out in a snow-storm I Just look at all these 
pretty white stars clinging to my furs. A snow- 
flake fell right into my mouth just a minute ago, 
and see, I have gathered nearly enough snow to 
make a ball to throw at you. You did not 
know I was going to snowball you, did you, 
papa ?" 

11 No, indeed, and if you do, perhaps I'll get 
some snow too, and wash your face 1 " said her 
papa laughingly. " But aren't you cold, little 
daughter, and don't you want to come in?" 

11 Oh, no, papa, please, please let me stay out 
a little longer. It is such fun ! Besides, this is 
nice dry snow, it cannot hurt me one bit, and I 
am just as warm as toast ! " 

A few minutes later the doctor took the lady 
back to his office, where he said: "Well, 
madam, do you really think I had better coop 
that child up in the house again, as I did last 
winter?" 

" No, no indeed ! " cried the lady. "Why, I 
never saw such a change in my life 1 And you 
say that the only medicine you have given her is 
plenty of fresh air and sunshine ? I declare, I 
am going to try that medicine on my children 
too. I thought it was far too cold to let them go 
out, and I meant to keep them in all winter, 



The Need of Sunshine 87 

because they are very delicate, but if a crippled 
child can sit outdoors all day, I guess a walk 
won't do them any harm ! " 

The lady went home to try the new remedy, 
and saw her little ones thrive like plants, for 
children too, need plenty of air and sunshine. 

34. The Need of Sunshine. 

In our last pages we said that if people, and 
children especially, wish to be well, they must 
get plenty of sunshine as well as plenty of fresh 
air. That reminds me of a funny story I once 
heard. 

A wise doctor was once called to see a little 
girl who looked very pale and ill. She did not 
care to run about and play, and was so quiet and 
sad that her mamma was greatly troubled about 
her. After some time the doctor found out 
that the child was all right, but that her mother 
and nurse kept her bundled up so closely, and 
shaded so carefully, that the sun never had a 
chance to warm her skin. 

He had preached fresh air and sun many a 
time, but the mother had not understood what he 
meant. She had sent her little daughter out of 
doors, but sunbonnets, veils and parasols, had 
kept every ray of sun away from the poor little 
thing. 

There was a beautiful rose-bush in the garden, 



88 Yourself 

which this little girl loved dearly, and the doctor, 
— who was " such a funny man " — suddenly pro- 
posed to dress that bush up in one of her suits of 
clothes. The little girl thought this fine fun, 
although they had considerable trouble in getting 
all the garments on and around the poor rose- 
bush, which looked very queer all dressed up in 
its little mistress' garments ! When they had 
finished, the doctor laughed and said: "Just 
let those things stay on the rose-bush until I come 
again." 

A few days later, when the doctor and the lit- 
tle girl visited the rose-bush again, they found it 
withered and nearly dead. "Why! what does 
this mean?" said the doctor, making believe to 
be greatly surprised. 

11 It means that my poor rose-bush is dead ! " 
cried the little girl. " Of course, the poor thing 
could not live without sunshine ! " 

" Neither can you," said the doctor. "You 
need sunshine too, or you will never be strong 
and happy. See, your rose-bush pined away 
after wearing all your clothes only a few days." 

The little girl and her mother then both under- 
stood what the doctor had been trying to tell 
them. After that the little girl was sent out of 
doors with no more wraps than other children, 
the sun was allowed to pour into the nursery 
where she played, and in summer, she ran along 



The Frame of Our House 89 

the beach barefooted and bareheaded, and took 
even more sun baths than dips into the sea. The 
result was that she was soon brown and rosy, 
full of fun and spirits, as hungry as a healthy 
child should be, and that she played all day and 
slept all night as hard as she could. 

Sun and air are so good for everybody, that 
many sick people are now given sun and air 
baths so as to help them to get well. In fact, 
some people are kept out of doors nearly all the 
time, especially when they are troubled with weak 
lungs ; and many a weak-lunged person has been 
quite cured by sleeping in a tent, and sitting out 
of doors all day long, in some place where the 
climate was both cold and dry. It is because 
sun and air are so good for such people, that 
doctors often send them to live in the Adirondack 
or other mountains, or out in Colorado, where 
cloudy days are very few. 

35. The Frame of Our House. 

Every house has some kind of a frame, although 
you often cannot see it after the house is all fin- 
ished. There is also a frame to your body, 
which you can feel, although it is all covered 
over so that you cannot see it. 

As you know, the framework of a house is 
made of wood or iron beams ; but your frame- 
work is all. made of bone. If all the skin and 



90 Yourself 

flesh which cover and hide your bones were 
taken away, there would be nothing but the bone 
frame, or skeleton, left. 

Every one has a bone frame to keep the soft 
parts of his body in good shape, and to protect 
the delicate parts. If you look at the picture of 
a skeleton, you will see that the head is a kind 
of a bone box, made to hold the brain. The chest 
is a bone cage, made to protect your heart and 
lungs ; and there is a sort of bone basin, made 
on purpose to hold the bowels, etc. 

If we mention the backbone, — which is really 
a string of little bones, fitted nicely together, — 
the bones of the legs and arms, and of the hands 
and feet, we have spoken of all the principal 
beams in our bodies. 

Still, there are many different bones, and if you 
come to count them all separately, little and big, 
you will find about two hundred. Each of these 
bones has its own name, its own place, and its 
own use. Doctors know just where these bones 
are, what they do, and how to mend them when 
they are broken or out of joint. Besides, they 
know just what makes good and bad bones, and 
if called in time, they can often straighten crooked 
bones, and make sick bones well. 

Even when you were a wee baby, so small and 
so soft that one hardly dared to touch you, all 
your bones were there. But they were not big 



The Frame of Our House 91 

and strong and hard as they are now. They 
were very small, and so soft that they could 
easily bend. 

Bones keep growing bigger and harder, longer 
and stronger, from babyhood until you are about 
twenty-five years old. It is only then, that the 
framework of human houses is really finished, and 
that they cease to grow. Still, as long as we 
live, our bones are alive, and need the air and 
food which the blood-boats bring them night and 
day. 

Bones are made of a tough animal material 
which can bend easily. In the wee open spaces 
between this material, there is stored away the 
mineral parts, which make bones hard and brittle. 
We know that bones are thus queerly made, and 
you can prove it for yourself, if you choose to 
make the following experiments. 

Take a chicken or any other kind of a bone, 
put it in the fire and let it stay there about three 
hours, or until all the fat, or animal part, is burned 
up. Then take it out of the fire, very gently and 
carefully, and you will see that it looks much the 
same, but is all full of little holes. If you strike 
this bone with a hammer, it will fall into dust, 
for now that the animal part is burned away, 
there is nothing left to hold the mineral parts in 
place. 

Now, take another bone, soak it three days in 



92 Yourself 

muriatic acid. Then, all the mineral part of this 
bone will be eaten up by the acid, and nothing 
but the animal part left. A bone which has been 
treated in this way, can easily be bent in any 
shape you please. It is so supple, that you can 
even tie it in a knot, but you cannot break it, 
because it is still very tough, although it has 
ceased to be brittle. 

36. Baby's Bones. 

Because soft bones can so easily be bent, we 
ought to be very careful to keep our bones 
straight as long as they are soft. That is one 
reason why babies must be handled with so much 
care. All their bones are so very soft and ten- 
der, that they can readily be bent out of the 
right shape. 

It is because a baby's bones bend so easily, 
that it is never wise to let him try and stand too 
soon. But some grown people are very foolish, 
and keep coaxing baby to stand, long before his 
poor little legs are really strong enough to bear 
his weight. Thus, his soft bones are bent a lit- 
tle, and baby grows up bow-legged. 

Babies who are strong and light, can often 
stand and walk without hurting themselves when 
they are only nine or ten months old. But a 
weak, fat, or heavy baby, should not be ex- 
pected or encouraged to walk until very much 



Baby's Bones 93 

later. In fact, it is very much better for most 
babies not to try to walk until they are a year 
and a half old, for until then their bones are often 
not strong enough to hold them up without bend- 
ing a little. 

Baby will want to stand and walk just as soon 
as he feels strong enough to do so. Therefore, 
you must not coax or urge him, until he is quite 
ready. It is also because a baby's bones are 
soft, and bend easily without breaking, that you 
seldom hear of broken bones among very little 
children. 

Although, as you know, the wee tots are al- 
ways falling, they seldom get badly hurt. Still, 
one should never drop a baby, or bump his head 
because lifelong injuries are the result of such 
accidents. 

The bones forming baby's head are not only 
very soft, but they do not join together, until he 
is nearly three years old. It is because the bones 
are not joined at first, that baby has a "soft 
spot" on the top of his little head. 

You have surely been told to be careful always 
to touch that spot very, very gently. In that 
place, baby's tender little brain is not protected 
by any bone. A blow or knock there, or even a 
rough touch, might hurt the baby's brain so badly, 
that he might become very ill, or be an idiot all 
his days. You see now, why your mamma is so 



94 Yourself 

very gentle with the baby, and why she guards 
that " soft spot " with such loving care. 

Young bones can so easily take a wrong shape, 
that mothers and teachers have to keep very close 
watch over the children to prevent their growing 
up crooked. Now many children think it is just 
fussiness when the older people keep reminding 
them to sit up straight, to stand on both feet, to 
hold their heads up, to throw their shoulders 
back, and not to twist their feet around chair 
legs. 

But, mothers and teachers know that if you 
sit a few hours every day, with one arm on the 
desk and the other in your lap, your poor back- 
bone will be ail twisted. If it gets in the habit 
of twisting in this way, it will soon stay so, and 
then you will be deformed when you grow up. 

There are some people in the world who are 
deformed and who cannot help it. Some of 
them were born so, and with others it is the re- 
sult of some accident, or of some disease. But 
a child who grows up crooked, simply because 
he is careless, or who wilfully bends his nice 
straight bones into wrong shapes, is acting in a 
very wrong way, and will be very sorry later on. 

yj. How to Keep Straight Bones. 
In early childhood, the bones are so soft that 
they can bend almost any way we please. By 



How to Keep Straight Bones 9$ 

•v 

ten, most children have the habit of sitting or 
standing in certain ways. If these habits are 
good, their bones are growing straight. But if 
the habits are bad, their bones are already a little 
crooked, and will go on growing more and more 
so, every day the wrong habits are kept up. 

Every child who reads this book ought to stop 
and think whether he generally sits, and stands, 
and moves as he should. Does your mother or 
teacher have to tell you, many times a day, 
"Stand up straight," " Sit up in your chair," 
" Don't loll about," etc., etc. If you hear these 
words often, you may be sure you are not treat- 
ing your bones as you should. 

I have seen careful mothers who were always 
reminding their children to hold themselves 
properly. These mothers thought of the future, 
and were anxious to have their children grow up 
with strong, straight frameworks for their bodies. 
But I have seen those very children obey in a 
half-hearted way, and sink back into the wrong 
position just as soon as mother's back was turned. 

Some children, when reminded of this matter, 
often get very cross indeed, and say or think : 
11 Oh, dear, I do wish mother would let me 
alone ! She does worry so about how I stand or 
sit. I like to sit crooked. What difference does 
it make to her? I don't care how I look." 

No, you may not care one bit now, but when 



96 Yourself 

it is too late, when your bones have grown quite 
crooked, and when nothing can straighten them 
again, you will wish you had acted very differ- 
ently, and you will say: " Oh ! why didn't they 
make me do it whether I wanted to or not ? " 

Now, if parents and teachers could give all their 
time to this one thing only, they might be able to 
make the children sit and stand correctly nearly 
all the time ; but then, you see, they would have 
no chance to do anything else ! How much 
wiser it would be, therefore, if every little house 
owner made up his mind, right now, to watch 
over this matter himself, and to see that his 
beams have no chance to be anything but straight 
and strong in the end. 

The master in your house can easily look after 
the framework all the time, if he only chooses 
to do so. He can send telegrams all over the 
building, and his servants will be sure to obey 
any orders they receive. Then, every one will 
say : " See, so-and-so has a fine, graceful figure 1 
Just look what a straight back he has ! See how 
well he carries himself, and how easily he moves. 
He is a finely built fellow ! " 

That is much more pleasant than to hear some 
one remark : " Did you ever see such a crooked 
person as so-and-so ? He moves about in such 
an awkward way, that I cannot bear to look at 
himl n 



The Crooked Tree 97 

> 

38. The Crooked Tree. 

There is a very old proverb which says : 
" The way the twig is bent, the tree is inclined." 
This proverb is very true, as the following story 
will show you. In an orchard there was once a 
very crooked tree ; so crooked, that instead of 
growing straight up into the air like all the rest, 
it bent far over until its trunk was almost lying 
along the ground. 

One day, when the farmer and his son were 
out there together, the boy noticed that crooked 
tree and asked his father why he did not cut it 
down. 

" Oh, I don't want to do that," said the 
farmer, " for it bears such fine apples 1 " 

" Well then, father, you really ought to 
straighten it, for it spoils the looks of this nice 
orchard 1 " answered the son. 

" Yes," said the farmer, " it is a pity to have 
such a crooked tree in this orchard. You are 
quite right, my son, we must straighten it up." 

So he sent for a man with a team of strong 
horses and bade him bring long chains and ropes. 
But after trying a long time, and all in vain, the 
man said : •' It is no use, sir ! That tree can 
never be straightened again. It has grown 
crooked. If you wanted a straight tree, you 
should have seen to it some years ago, when it 
was young. Then, a child could easily have bent 



98 Yourself 

it this way or that. Now, all the teams in the 
world could not pull it straight ! " This man was 
quite right, you see, and the proverb is right too. 
If you want young trees to grow up straight, you 
must watch them, and when they show any signs 
of leaning over, tie them to stout stakes. Those 
will hold them up until they have grown strong 
and upright. That is the way to have nice trees ! 

Now, boys and girls are very much like young 
trees, only as they do not keep still, they cannot 
be tied to stakes. But if boys and girls watch 
themselves, train themselves to sit up straight, al- 
ways stand on both feet, hold their shoulders 
back, their knees straight, and their heads up, 
their bones will be sure to grow in the right way. 

So, boys and girls, help your parents and teach- 
ers all you can, instead of hindering them as you 
do, and remember that it is not " nagging," but 
great kindness, when some one reminds you that 
you are not holding yourself properly. 

You should also help your younger brothers 
and sisters to keep their bones in the right shape, 
and bear in mind at all times how very careful 
you should be with the baby bones, because they 
are the most tender of all. 

Some of you may have had very bad habits 
until now, but you can change them, for it is not 
yet too late. Most of your bones grow until 
you are twenty, so, many of them can still be 



How to Have Good Bones 99 

•v 

straightened out, even if they are a little out of 
shape when you are ten or twelve years old. 
But you will doubtless find that it takes a great 
deal of hard trying every day, and all day, to get 
rid of bad habits and to form good ones. Still, 
when good habits are formed, and the bad ones 
are quite forgotten, you will be able to trust your 
servants to keep them up, for they will do what- 
ever you really wish. 

It is the duty of every boy or girl to see that 
his or her framework is just as good and straight 
as it can be made. When you grow up, you will 
be very glad to have strong, good-looking houses 
rather than tumble-down shanties. In fact, some 
bodies are so fine and strong and well-cared for 
that they deserve to be called temples, while 
others are so neglected and crooked and ugly 
that they no longer look like God's handiwork at 
all. 

39. How to Have Good Bones. 

Most of our bones are hollow. That is what 
makes them light and strong at the same time. 
In the hollow there is some fat, called marrow, 
in and through which run many little veins along 
which the blood-boats travel night and day. 

All the bones of the body are made to fit nicely 
together. The place where two or more bones 
join together is called a joint. You can surely 



LofC. 



ioo Yourself 

all point to your finger, elbow, and knee joints, 
can you not ? If a bone slips out of the place 
where it belongs, we say it is " out of joint." 

Whenever this happens, it always causes pain. 
The best thing to do then is to keep perfectly 
quiet until the doctor comes. If the hurt is very 
bad, and is in your hand or foot, you can hold it 
in a basin of hot water. If elsewhere, put cloths 
dipped in hot water upon the aching part, and 
keep changing them often. This will lessen the 
pain, will prevent swelling, and the heat will 
quickly bring the blood-boats there to repair any 
damages. 

If a fall or blow results in a broken bone, you 
should also keep very still until the doctor comes. 
But if the accident happens out of doors, when 
the weather is too cold for you to stay quiet, 
those who are with you should help, or carry you 
home, holding the broken parts firmly together, 
to prevent the bones from slipping any further 
out of place, or from running through the skin. 

Hot water on a broken bone is also the easiest 
remedy until the doctor comes ; but you should 
send for him right away, for the sooner the bone 
is set, the sooner the blood-boats can set to work 
to mend it by bringing new materials. 

Broken bones generally grow together again 
in a month or six weeks, and if one keeps quite 
still, and minds all the doctor's orders, they will 



The Muscles 101 

be just as good as new. Any neglect of the 
doctor's orders, or using a broken limb too soon, 
is sure to prevent the bone from healing properly. 

When a bone does not heal aright, the limb 
proves more or less useless, and sometimes 
doctors have to break the same bone over again 
to get it straight and well once more. As this is 
even more painful than the first break, it is far 
wiser to see that the bone has a good chance to 
heal properly the first time it is damaged. 

Plenty of bread, oatmeal, and wholesome food 
in general, is good for your bones ; but too many 
sweets and too much soda water is very bad in- 
deed for them. A child who drinks much soda 
water is very apt to have brittle bones and poor 
teeth. A tumble, which would only mean a 
bump or a bruise for some one else, may result in 
one or more breaks with a child who drinks much 
soda water. And these breaks will not heal as 
fast nor as perfectly, as if the child had never 
been allowed to drink soda water, save once in a 
very great while, as a special treat. 

40. The Muscles. 
We have said that the bones or frames of our 
bodies are all covered with flesh, which lies like 
a kind of cushion around and over them. It is 
the flesh which gives our body its soft, rounded 
appearance. 



102 Yourself 

The flesh which covers our bones is all made 
up of muscle and fat, through which run many of 
the pipes and blood vessels. 

We have already learned about the blood ves- 
sels and the blood-boats, so we know how useful 
they are. The fat, which is tucked away here 
and there in different parts of the body, is also 
useful. It is made mostly from sugar, and it is 
stored up, so that the blood-boats can go and get 
it and use it, whenever anything happens to the 
stomach, bowels, or liver, so that they cannot 
send fresh supplies of food. 

The muscles (what we call lean meat in beef, 
mutton, or any other kind of meat which comes 
on our tables) are very useful indeed. They are 
really the ropes by means of which the master 
pulls the bones here and there to make the body 
move. These muscles are fine and very elastic, 
and there are so many of them that they form 
kinds of bunches. The muscles bind all the bones 
together and keep them in place. If they were 
not so strong and so elastic, our body framework 
would wobble and fall apart like a badly jointed 
doll, or we would be stiff and immovable, so that 
we would look more like wooden statues than 
like graceful, active, living beings. 

Besides being something like a house, our 
body can also be compared to a machine. In 
the latter case the muscles are the ropes and 



How Muscles Change Shape 105 

straps, which can be tightened or loosened, just 
as the owner of the machine pleases. The 
muscles not only cover all the bone framework 
of the body, but they form part of all the pipes, 
and the room walls and linings. They are every- 
where, and everywhere they are useful as you 
are going to see. 

41. How Muscles Change Shape. 

All our muscles are very elastic and ready to 
obey the least message brought by the nerve tele- 
graph, which runs all through our bodies in 
every direction. The muscles are so elastic, 
that they can also change their shape in an in- 
stant, and stretch out until they are long and 
thin, or tighten up until they are very short and 
thick. 

If you wish to know just how your muscles 
act, lay your left hand on the upper inner part of 
your right arm. Now clench your right fist and 
draw it up towards your shoulder. As you do 
this, you can feel the tightening of the big muscle 
between the shoulder and elbow, can you not ? 
In fact, it grows so thick and makes such a 
bump, that you can see as well as feel it. 

People who use their muscles a great deal, 
have much larger and stronger muscles than those 
who sit still and do nothing. A boy who plays 
baseball, does gymnastics, rows and swims, or 



104 Yourself 

one who works on a farm or at some trade, has 
far more muscle (as it is called), than one who 
spends most of his time lolling in an easy-chair, 
asking: " What shall I do?" or crying: "I 
dont know what to play next." 

Girls who run, and jump, and play tag, who 
help mother in the kitchen and house-work, and 
who take care of the baby, also have more and 
better muscle than those who never do anything 
active or useful. 

A child who is very active, who runs about a 
great deal, and who is never quiet save when 
asleep, keeps many of its muscles at work all the 
time. Every time a muscle moves, it uses up a 
little air and food, and wears out a little of its 
material. When muscles are very busy they use 
up more food and air than when they move 
quietly or are at rest. 

For that reason, as soon as you begin to move 
them the Pumping Dwarfs send the blood-boats 
out a little faster, for they know that the muscles 
need plenty of food and repairing stuff. The 
muscles are all fed and kept in good repair by 
these little blood-boats, which, besides food and 
building materials, bring all the air needed. 

The muscles are very glad to get this food and 
air and new building materials to take the place 
of those which are worn out. Besides, the 
muscles have to get rid of the bad air, the waste 



How to Treat the Muscles 105 

food, and the worn-out materials, which those 
same little blood-boats carry swiftly away. 

42. How to Treat the Muscles. 

If the muscles move so fast that they use up 
more food and air than the blood-boats can 
bring, even when the Pumping Dwarfs are send- 
ing them out as fast as they can, they soon feel 
very faint and weak. 

Then they telegraph up to the master : " Can't 
you let us rest? We are tired. Stop a minute 
so we can get food and air enough, and so we 
can replace our worn-out material ! " If the 
master minds this message, and makes the body 
rest, the muscles make up their loss, and they 
soon feel all right again. 

But if the master pays no heed to the message, 
and keeps the muscles working, they get more 
and more tired, until they feel so faint that they 
can scarcely do what he wishes. When this 
happens, they sometimes get cross and jerk. At 
other times they are sad and discouraged, and 
go on in a half-hearted way until they ache so 
hard that the master finds it out. Then, — as the 
ache disturbs him, — he generally sends word to 
them to stop moving. 

Even while the master is sound asleep, the 
muscles are still at work. They are busy taking 
in food and air from the blood-boats, and getting 



io6 Yourself 

new materials to repair the damages done by 
moving too fast and too long. 

If they can get food and air enough while the 
master is asleep, and if they can get rid of all the 
waste, get new stuff, and enjoy a wee rest, they 
will be quite ready for a new day's work when 
the master awakes. 

But if the master has not been careful to eat 
enough good food, or to drink enough pure 
water, and if he does not breathe enough fresh 
air, even while he sleeps, the blood-boats cannot 
carry enough supplies to the muscles. Then the 
muscles cannot repair damages, and when the 
master wakes up, and wants them to go to work, 
they are not in good condition to do so. 

Then the master receives a telegram from 
them saying : " We don't feel like working. 
We are still aching hard. Leave us alone I " 
Some masters pay no attention to such messages 
as this, and make the poor tired muscles work 
on. Others say: " Very well, we'll both rest," 
and then they spend their time eating trash, or 
breathing bad air. This kind of rest does tired 
muscles no good at all. 

But a wise master thinks : " Poor little muscles. 
I did not treat them fairly. They always served me 
well when I gave them food, air and rest enough. 
I must have stinted them in some way. Let's 
see, what did I do that was wrong > I stopped 



How to Treat the Muscles 107 

when they sent word they ached, and went to 
sleep, for I knew that the Pumping Dwarfs 
would send the blood-boats to them with food 
and air. Yesterday I ate plenty of good plain 
food, so surely the blood-boats had enough food to 
carry. Ah I I remember now what was wrong I 
I forgot to open my bedroom window last night. 

4 ' While asleep I breathed the same air over and 
over again, all night long. Of course the blood- 
boats could not get fresh air enough to carry to 
my tired muscles. That is why they are still 
cross and tired this morning. I am not a good 
master. I must be more careful. Now, I will 
go out of doors and take long, full breaths, so as 
to send as much air as I can to those poor 
muscles." 

A master who thus finds out just why his 
muscles are cross, and who honestly tries to 
supply what they need, will generally find that 
they are quite willing and ready to go to work 
again as soon as they have secured what they 
needed so badly. 

The more exercise you take, — out of doors 
especially, where you are sure of having plenty 
of nice fresh air all the time, — the better it is for 
your muscles. For, when you exercise, you 
wear out the old muscle, and the blood-boats 
bring materials to make new. With plenty of 
food, air, and the right materials, good new 



108 Yourself 

muscle is made, and every one knows how much 
better fresh, new things are than those which are 
old and worn out ! 

That is why parents and teachers urge children 
to run and play out of doors whenever they can, 
and that is why you should have plenty of exer- 
cise. Children of all ages need exercise, and so 
do the older people, only they often need less 
because you see their muscles are already full 
grown. 

43. How to Train the Muscles. 

When muscles have enough food, air, and 
rest, they are apt to be quite healthy. But 
muscles need plenty of exercise as well as plenty 
of rest. If you wish your muscles to obey you 
quickly, and to do exactly what you wish, in the 
neatest and nicest way, you must first teach them 
how to do it. 

The muscles are all willing servants of the 
master of the house, but he has to train them. 
If he trains them well, they will do his work 
well ; but if he is careless and lets them do their 
work in any way they please, it will often be 
very poorly done. 

You know how it always is. Good masters 
make good servants. In some houses every- 
thing is done neatly, the meals ready on time, 
well cooked, and all runs smoothly. Then we 



How to Train the Muscles 109 

say : " So-and-so is a fine housekeeper and had 
beautifully trained servants. Everything runs as 
smoothly as clock work in that house 1 " 

In other places, you find everything at sixes 
and sevens, the meals are not on time, the food 
is badly cooked, the rooms are untidy, and peo- 
ple rightly say : " So-and-so is a very poor 
housekeeper. Her servants are lazy and untidy 
and run the house any way they please. It is 
very uncomfortable there." 

Now, since each one of us can train his muscle 
servants either to be neat, and quick, and capa- 
ble, or to be slow, lazy and untidy, don't you 
think it is wisest to begin right away and make 
them really good servants ? 

You know how it is about such a simple mat- 
ter as throwing a ball. A boy who knows just 
how to do it, picks up the ball, gives it a toss, 
and the ball goes just where he wishes. That is 
because he has practiced throwing balls until he 
is a fine pitcher. 

A girl who has not practiced baseball playing 
does it in a clumsy way. The ball goes only a 
little distance, or strikes far from the spot where 
she wished it to go. But a girl can take a 
needle and thread it, neatly and quickly, while a 
boy in trying to do so acts u as if his fingers 
were all thumbs." 

In both of these cases the muscles which have 



no Yourself 

done the work often, and which have been 
trained to do it neatly, quickly, and without any 
fuss, are good servants, while those which have 
not been trained cannot do the work well. Girls 
can learn to throw balls just as well as boys, and 
boys can learn to thread needles just as well as 
girls, if they only choose to do so. But it takes 
practice to do either thing well. 

If you allow your muscles to get into lazy, 
roundabout, awkward ways of doing things, 
you will have a great deal of trouble breaking 
them of these bad habits. But, still, you can do 
it, for every one who is not an idiot or a cripple, 
can train his muscles to do his work well. 

44. With Brains, Sir. 

One day, an artist went into a fellow-painter's 
studio and greatly admired a beautiful picture he 
had just finished. The figures were so lifelike, 
and the colors so bright, that the visitor im- 
agined there must be a secret way of preparing 
them and eagerly said : "I'd like to get my 
colors to glow like that. With what do you mix 
yours ? " 

"With brains, sir!" answered the painter, 
angry at being asked such a silly question. 

Now I am going to tell you a great secret. 
That is that everything we do should be mixed 
with brains ! There is a right and a wrong way 



With Brains, Sir in 

•v 

of doing everything. Of course, every child 
who reads this, learned to dress himself or her- 
self long ago. You dress yourselves every morn- 
ing, do you not? Many of you even have to 
dress several times a day. 

Each time you dress, you call your muscle 
servants and set them to work. Some children 
have trained their muscle servants so that they 
do that work neatly and quickly. The master up 
in their brain watches these servants closely, to 
see that they do their work properly. He always 
directs the hands, for instance, to seize and hold 
the stockings in such a way that they can be 
pulled on straight, and without needing to be 
twisted and turned to get the toes in the right 
place or the seam running up the back of the leg. 

Shoes can be buttoned, garters fastened, and 
clothes put on in a very few minutes, if you 
watch yourself closely, and do everything in the 
easiest, shortest way. Of course, you have to 
think about what you are doing, if you wish to 
do it neatly and quickly ; or at least you must 
think about it until your muscles get so used to 
moving in the right way, that they will do it 
without being reminded. 

I have seen some children who take an hour 
or more to get dressed, and then they look only 
half dressed, for many of their things are put on 
crooked. But, I have seen others who make a 



H2 Yourself 

game of getting dressed. They run races with 
their parents, with one another, or even with the 
clock. If you take off your clothes carefully at 
night, shake them well, turn them right side out, 
lay them down or hang them up where you can 
readily get at them in the morning, you can easily 
learn to put them on again in less than five 
minutes. 

Many grown people whom I know, can do 
that part of their dressing in three minutes, in 
summer, and in five in winter, and look as neat 
as if they came out of a bandbox. They have 
trained their muscles so well, that every motion 
is as exact and quick as that of a fine pitcher on 
a baseball team. The clothes go on just as they 
wish, and there are no wrong moves or hitches ! 

Many children whom I have seen consider it 
great fun to watch themselves even' time they 
dress, to see how much better and quicker they 
can make their muscle servants obey them every 
day. It takes a good deal of practice before a 
child learns to dress very quickly, but as every 
child has to dress and undress about three hun- 
dred and sixty-five times every year he lives, it 
will save him much time to learn to do it quickly 
and well right now. 

4v About Doing Things. 
Let us suppose a child who likes to dawdle, 



. About Doing Things 113 

•» 
look out of the window, play a little, grumble a 
little, who spends several minutes hunting around 
for missing shoes or stockings, buttons her 
clothes up crooked, and so has to unbutton and 
button them up again. 

Such a child takes from half an hour to an hour, 
merely to put on her clothes, — for we are not 
talking now of washing, hair-combing, tooth- 
brushing or nail-cleaning. 

In a year, a child who takes half an hour to dress 
every day, has spent one hundred and eighty-two 
and a half hours putting on her clothes. But the 
child who uses muscles and brains in such a way 
as to do the same work in ten minutes (it can be 
done in five), spends only a little more than sixty 
hours dressing. 

The quick child, therefore, has about one 
hundred and twenty-two hours more to spend in 
play, or sleep, or anything he or she chooses to 
do, than the little slow poke 1 Now, it is just 
the same with everything else you undertake, 
and if you "use your brains," you can train 
your muscles to do the same work just a little 
quicker and better every day you live. 

Servants who set the table and wash the dishes 
three times a day, could save themselves ever so 
many steps, and gain much time, if they only used 
their brains to train their muscles properly. But, 
a good part of the time they do not think of what 



H4 Yourself 

they are doing, or only half think about it, and so 
their muscles work just as they please. 

When the mistress has to do her servant's work, 
she is often surprised to see how quickly it can 
be done if she only thinks ahead, fixes things so as 
to have them handy, and takes as few steps, and 
makes as few unnecessary motions as possible. 

If you have to set tables, wash dishes, dust 
rooms, empty ashes, cut wood, harness horses, 
run errands, or merely get ready for school, just 
watch yourself, and see whether you do it in the 
quickest, shortest, easiest and neatest way. I 
am sure most of you will find that you can teach 
your muscle servants new and better ways, which 
will be a great help later on. 

I know a lady who has trained herself to do all 
her housework so beautifully and so quickly, 
that it seems almost like magic. She can go in 
the kitchen, cook the dinner, wash up all the 
dishes, pots and pans, and never get a speck of 
dust or the least little stain upon her best dress. 
She, her kitchen, and her whole house are always 
4 'as neat as wax." 

This lady often says, laughing, that God gave 
her brains so that she could train her muscles. 
She also declares that she is far too lazy to be will- 
ing to spend all her time clearing up the mess 
she makes, and doing her daily housework. She 
is so smart and so quick, that she has plenty of 



A Baby's Training 11$ 

■v 

time to sew, to go out calling, to play on the 
piano, to read and to paint, and still she really 
does much more work than many women I know, 
who spend all their time fussing over it. 

Don't you think, therefore, that it pays to use 
one's brain to train one's muscles ? If you use 
yours wisely while you are young, you can get 
your muscles in such good order by the time you 
are grown up, that you can do much in a short 
time with little fuss, or worry or fatigue. 

46. A Baby's Training. 

Every baby moves his legs and arms about, 
clutches at all he sees, and pokes things into his 
mouth. That is baby's way of learning all about 
himself and about the strange things all around 
him. 

Everything is new, and he has to find out for 
himself all about the world he lives in. A baby 
can learn all his first lessons far better than any 
one else can teach him. But when he gets old 
enough to notice what you are doing, and to 
imitate you, you can begin to teach him useful 
things just as easily as pretty tricks. 

There was a baby once, who always wanted to 
go from one room into the other because the 
door between stood open the greater part of the 
time. This baby could creep very nicely, but as 
there was a high step between the two rooms, 



1 1 6 Ycu r s{lf 

the ether -embers c: the family were kept running 
from morning till night to save her from a bad fall. 

An elder brother, who had to watch the baby, 
— and who did not enjoy being disturbed so o::z~ 
in his play. — finally usee his brains to some 
purpose. He knew the baby liked to do what- 
ever he did. So he sat he: down near the step, 
crawled towards it on his hands and knees, turned 
around, lay down hat en his stomach, and reached 
down first with one foot and then with the ether. 
When both his feet were in the lever room, he 
sat down and crept on. As soon as the baby 
crept to the step, he turned he: around, made her 
lie fiat, put her feet down in the lower room. 
made he: sit down, and then let he: z:ap on. 

Baby was delighted with this new game, which 
was repeated several times : after that, whenever 
she drew near the step, the big brother, instead 
of lifting her down as before, made her get down 
by herself, and befc:e night baby could do it all 
alone, and enjoyed it as much as if it were a fine 
joke. 

A few davs later, to save himself the trouble 



of 1 


ifting baby 


• • A ' - a 


step, thi 


s same b : c 1 1 


ter 


shov 


red her how 


' to hold 


on bv th 


ic ei ; e: iamb. 


to 


raise 


cne knee 


up en 


the step, 


, then to lie ; 


iat 


up or 
I 


a. so Know 


a v.- : -e 


: feet, a: 


id c:eep on. 
who. instead 


of 


alwa 


ys Z'.'^'.z^ r.i 


:: baby a sp;:n s 


md a tin pan 


to 



A Baby's Training 1 1 7 

play with, sometimes gave her a loop button 
hook. Several times she showed the baby how 
to hold this button hook, how to put it in the 
button-holes in her shoes, how to push it through 
them and over the buttons, and how to draw it 
back with one hand, while using the other to 
hold the button-hole in place. 

Before long, this baby loved to play with the 
button hook and with her shoes, and, before she 
could walk, she had already learned to button 
her own boots and loved to do it. In fact, it 
seemed such fine fun to her, that she gurgled and 
cooed while doing it, and laughed and shouted 
with glee as soon as it was all done. 

It was such a nice game for baby, that her 
mamma had to unbutton her shoes time and again 
every day, so that she could button them up again. 
But the good mother knew that all this was fine 
practice for her baby's little muscles and so she 
did it gladly. 

Later on, this mother was very happy indeed 
that her little girl could button her own shoes, at 
an age when most little ones two and three years 
older always had to have it done for them. 

It is very much kinder to show a little child 
carefully and patiently how to do a thing, and let 
him do it himself, than to do it for him. Of 
course, older people can do the thing much 
quicker and better, but baby's muscles have to 



n8 Yr^sc'.f 

be trained early and of: en if they are ts make 
g:od servants for him 1 3. : e r :r. 

4". The Advantage :■? Well Trained 
Muscles. 

Children o: your are car. train the baby and 
themselves in many ways, and thus help :re:r 
parents and teachers. They will then, grow up 
clever and graceful, as we 1.1 as strong anc healthy 
men and v.-; men. 

A bey cr girl who learns to do any motion as 
quickly and well as it can be dene, has gained 
: _s: s: much, anc will be able t: learn anything 
else much more easily. That is why every child 
should do school gymnastics and drill with all his 
heart, for all those motions are par: of the train- 
ing of his muscle servants. 

In time :f war :r danger, men with -.veil trained 
rr. . res anc muscles can euiek.lv .earn :: c: anv- 
thing that is needful. But men who think little, 
and whose muscles are stiff and untrained, neec 
a great c^ai of cr;..:ng before they are of any 
use. 

For instance, a drill sergeant once hac to teacn 
some very stumd countrv boys how to maron. 
He called " Right foot, left foot! Right foot, 
left foot" until he was hoarse. But as these 
lacs did not even seem to know which foot was 
right and which was left, it was all in Tain. 



The Advantage of Well Trained Muscles 1 19 

•v 

In despair, the sergeant finally bade these 
stupid youths tie a wisp of hay around one foot 
and a wisp of straw around the other. 

Then he began the drill all over again saying: 
"Hay foot, straw foot 1 Hay foot, straw foot ! " 
until he had taught them how to march properly. 
You see, these lads knew the difference between 
hay and straw, which they had often seen, and 
the sergeant had brains enough to find out this 
way to teach them what they had to learn. 

In many schools, especially in cities, the chil- 
dren go through the fire drill very often, because 
the teachers know that when their muscles are 
thoroughly trained, they won't be likely to make 
any mistakes, and that all can get out of the 
building safely, even if it does catch fire. 

Every child should therefore do his best to 
learn the drill well, and to obey every order as 
quickly and exactly as he can. Then, if the 
master of his little house keeps cool in time of 
danger, and does not bother the muscle servants 
by giving them wrong orders, all will be well, for 
the muscles know their duty and will be sure to 
do it. 

The mother of a four year old boy trained her 
little son to drop anything and everything and run 
to her whenever she called him in a certain way. 
One day, she was out walking with the little fel- 
low, who was standing some distance ahead of her. 



1 20 Yourself 

They were near a field where some big boys 
were playing baseball. The mother saw a swift 
ball coming, and called her little son, who turned 
instantly and ran back to her. A second after he 
turned, the ball came whizzing across the walk, 
just at the spot where the child had been a mo- 
ment before. 

The mother said that nothing but his prompt 
obedience saved his life, for the ball would 
certainly have struck his temple with such force 
that the blow would have proved fatal. You can 
imagine how thankful that mother was to have 
trained her boy to obey right away. If she had 
allowed him to get in the habit of saying : " Yes, 
mamma, in a minute 1" or of asking "Why?" 
before he obeyed, his life would have been lost. 

48. When to Fight. 

While girls should train themselves, as soon as 
they can, to do all sorts of housework, boys can 
learn to drive in nails, and do all kinds of car- 
penter work deftly. Every kind of knowledge 
is useful some time or other, and I never heard 
any one regret that he knew how to do anything 
really well. 

Many boys think only of growing very strong 
so as to lift great weights to surprise people, or 
to do other feats of strength. But such muscle 
training is not of much use, and the efforts made 



When to Fight 121 

are likely to do great harm in the end. It is far, 
far better to be a skilful workman, in any trade, 
than a champion prize-fighter or a lifter of great 
weights. 

If you have a chance to do so, boys, it is 
well to learn to fence and box. To fence or box 
well you have to give your muscles considerable 
training, which will make them strong and supple 
without straining them in any way. 

Such training will besides enable a boy to hold 
his own, should he ever have to do any fighting. 
For there are times, you know, when even the 
most peaceable men or boys are forced to fight. 
I would advise any boy to keep out of a fight just 
as long as he can, but if he sees a big boy bully 
a little one, and cannot make him stop in any 
other way, he should give that bully a good 
thrashing. 

In fact a man's or boy's strength is given to 
him to defend himself against any attack, to fight 
for his country, and to protect girls, women, 
children, and all those who are weaker than him- 
self. 

The other day, I saw in a newspaper that a 
young woman was kept at work over hours and 
started to go home alone at ten o'clock at night. 
It was in a big city, and while she was waiting at 
the corner of the street for a car, a man stepped 
up and spoke to her. 



122 Yourself 

This man must have been either drunk or bad, 
and he must have said something very horrid, for the 
young woman started back and looked around in 
a frightened way for a policeman. There was no 
officer in sight, and the rough man was just going 
to seize her arm, when another man, passing by, 
pounced upon the ruffian and gave him the thrash- 
ing he so richly deserved. 

The newspaper said that the nice man was 
young and slender, and not nearly so tall and 
strong as the one he had attacked. But his 
muscles were well trained, and his indignation 
gave him the necessary strength to defend that 
woman. 

He did not annoy her by speaking to her, or 
try to gain her notice in any way, but he held the 
ruffian down until she had stepped into her car 
and was out of harm's way. As there was no 
policeman there, at the time, to protect this lone 
woman, the young stranger did quite right to in- 
terfere and take the law into his own hands, and 
everybody admires him for it. 

Every boy and man should learn to treat every 
girl and woman just as he would like other men 
and boys to treat his mother, his sister, or his 
wife. He should always be ready to protect 
them from rough men, and to give them any help 
in his power whenever they need it. 

The boy heroes whom we hear about, who 



The Pores 125 

have saved people from drowning, from burning 
buildings, or who have snatched children or old 
people from in front of locomotives, or from run- 
away horses, did not become heroes in a minute 
or even in a day. 

When the moment of danger came, their minds 
and muscles, always on the lookout to help 
others, or to do a kind deed, merely acted in the 
usual way, without needing any prompting. But 
selfish and lazy boys never become heroes, for 
they are used to think of themselves only, and 
not of others, and their muscle servants have 
gotten into such bad habits, that they are quite 
useless in time of sudden need. 

So, if you ever hope to be a hero, and to risk 
your own life without any hesitation to save an- 
other, you should begin right away to train your- 
self to think of others before you think of your- 
self. You should, besides, teach your muscle 
servants to be always ready and willing to serve 
others, and by and by they will be so used to 
doing it, that they will move in the right way 
almost before you know it. 

49. The Pores. 

We have already talked a little about the 

skin, which covers all the outside, and lines 

all the inside of your little house. We have also 

noticed that the skin inside is not nearly so 



1 24 Yourself 

thick as the skin outside, and that you can 
plainly see the blood and flesh through it. 

You know how delicate the inner skin is, and 
how careful we should be not to hurt it in any 
way. You are also aware of the fact that it is 
always kept moist and soft, and that it is fed and 
kept in good condition by the blood-boats, which 
supply it with all the food, air, and repairing 
materials it needs. 

Now we are going to talk a little about the 
skin which covers the outside of your little 
houses. This is very much thicker than the 
inner skin, and seems quite different in make and 
in color. If you look at the skin on the back of 
your hand, you will notice a number of little 
marks upon it which look something like pin 
pricks. 

These little marks, or holes in the skin, are 
called pores. Besides the big pores, which you 
can thus see in different parts of your body, there 
are ever and ever so many tiny little ones, which 
you cannot see unless you take a magnifying 
glass. 

The pores are the mouths or openings of many, 
many little tubes which run right down into your 
skin. Night and day, out of some of these tubes 
flows a fine oil (far too fine to be seen), which 
keeps the skin soft and smooth. We know that 
oil comes out of these pores, not only because 



The Pores 12$ 

some doctors have seen it with their microscopes, 
but also because our skin feels and often looks 
oily. It is often so oily that if you pour clear 
water upon it, the water will roll off without 
really wetting it. When we want to wet our 
skin therefore, we must first rub the oil off by 
means of soap and hot water. 

There are millions and millions of pores in each 
human body, and while some pour out oil on the 
skin to keep it soft and smooth, others pour out 
water and refuse. The water which comes out 
of the pores generally flows in such very small 
drops that you cannot see it. It is like steam, 
and flies off in the air or is soaked up by our 
clothes. 

But sometimes the pores send out so much 
water that it cannot all fly away and forms drops 
on the skin. Then we say that person is sweat- 
ing or perspiring. The water which thus comes 
out on the skin helps to cool the body when it 
is too hot, so a person who perspires, suffers far 
less from great heat than one whose skin stays 
dry. 

The body gets rid of much of its refuse by 
means of the skin. All the waste that is not cast 
out by the garbage can and bladder Dwarfs, or 
blown out by the lung bellows, is sent out through 
the pores of our skin. 

Each little pore, therefore, has its own share 



126 Yourself 

of work to do, and as long as it stays open it can 
work well. In fact the pores work night and 
day. They work when the master is asleep, just 
as well as when he is awake, and when they are 
all in good order they cast out nearly as much 
bad air, waste water, and other refuse, as is sent 
out of the body by other means, although you 
cannot see it. 

$o. How to Keep the Pores Open. 

You have all seen mucilage bottles, have you 
not ? Did you ever notice that little by little as 
the sticky mucilage dried around the neck of the 
bottle, the opening got smaller and smaller? In- 
deed some mucilage bottles get all stopped up by 
the mucilage which dries and forms a kind of 
stopper in the neck of the bottle. When this 
happens, you can tip the bottle way over but no 
mucilage will come out. 

Well, our pores are something like mucilage 
bottles. The water and refuse poured out of 
them dries around their edges, although you can- 
not see it without a magnifying glass. If this 
dry refuse is not washed away, so that the top of 
the tube (or the neck of the skin mucilage bottle) 
is kept quite clean and clear, the opening soon 
gets so stopped up that no oil, no water, and no 
refuse can come out of it any more. 

When this happens it is very bad indeed for 



How to Keep the Pores Open 127 

the skin, and for the owner of the house. The 
little tubes go on bringing refuse and water to 
the top of the skin, which they wish to pour out, 
but they find the opening closed so tightly that 
they cannot do so. 

This makes them very cross, for they all like 
to do their work as faithfully as they can. Then 
they try to make the master of the house under- 
stand that something is wrong, by sending him 
telegrams which make him feel a little uncom- 
fortable. If this won't do, and the pore openings 
are not freed, the dirty skin often gets red and 
sore, or it gets rough and scaly, and the nerve 
telegrams keep telling the master that all is not 
right with the skin. The refuse, which cannot 
pass out through the skin when the openings are 
stopped up, is then carried back into the body, 
where the lungs and the kidneys have to take 
care of it, besides looking after their own share 
of waste. 

As the body servants are all remarkably obli- 
ging and ready to help one another in time of need, 
the lungs and kidneys when thus called upon to 
take care of the skin refuse too, are very apt to 
say : " Poor skin, it must be sick, or it would 
surely do its own work. We must help it until 
it gets better." 

Then the kidneys and lungs work harder still 
to do their own work and that of the skin as well. 



1 28 Yourself 

But if the skin does not soon get to work again, 
the lungs and kidneys get over-tired, and by and 
by they get very cross and begin to growl. 

44 Why does not that lazy skin get to work? 
We cannot go on forever doing its work as well 
as our own ! Really, Master ought to see to 
this matter. It is not fair to overwork us in this 
way. Well soon be sick too, if this goes on 1 M 

A just master, who knows that his skin, lungs, 
bowels and kidneys each have their own work 
to do, and that if they do not do it nicely his 
house cannot be well kept, always tries to keep 
all these ways of removing waste in good order. 

As you know, the kidneys are all right when 
the master eats plain, wholesome food, drinks 
plenty of pure water, does not catch cold and 
keeps cheerful and pleasant. 

The lungs are all right as long as the master 
breathes plenty of nice fresh air, which has been 
sifted and warmed, and when he gives them 
plenty of room to swell out as much as they 
please, and sees that they are kept comfortably 
warm. 

To keep the skin healthy, the master of the 
house must not only eat wholesome food, drink 
pure water, and breathe fresh air, but he must 
also keep every inch of it perfectly clean so that 
all the little pore openings will not be stopped 
up. 



About Bathing 129 

J 1. About Bathing. 

To keep your skin perfectly clean, and always 
in good condition, you ought to take a good 
bath, or hard scrubbing, with hot water and soap 
at least once a week, washing every bit of your 
body thoroughly. If you perspire a great deal 
or if you do dirty work, it is often a good plan 
to put a teaspoonful of household ammonia to a 
basin of water before you begin to wash. Most 
people know enough to wash their faces and 
hands every morning ; but this is not enough to 
keep our skin in good health. Faces and hands 
should be washed as often as needful to keep 
them nice and clean at all times. But, besides 
that, every one should brush his or her teeth 
night and morning, wash the private parts care- 
fully with soap and water, and take a sponge 
bath once a day. 

Some people say they do not have time to do 
all this. Others declare that it would make them 
ill. Now, all these excuses are sheer nonsense, 
and only show that those who make them do not 
know how to wash quickly and well. Of course, 
if it takes them an hour every time they take a 
bath, I can readily understand that they cannot 
find the time. I can also understand that it 
makes them ill, for too much soaking is very 
bad for the body, while mere washing is good 
for it. 



130 Yourself 

If you have a bathroom, with a tub and plenty 
of hot and cold water, you can soon learn to take 
a full bath, scrubbing every inch of your person 
with soap, rinsing yourself off carefully, and 
rubbing yourself dry, in about ten minutes. By 
taking fifteen minutes, you can empty and wash 
out the tub, so that the next person who wants to 
use it may find it nice and clean. In fact, you 
should always leave a bathroom as neat as you 
found it, and you can learn to do this so quickly 
and easily, that it will take very little time and be 
very little trouble. 

If you have no bathroom, you can get just as 
clean, only perhaps not quite so easily or quickly, 
by washing your body piecemeal. Of course, for 
a thorough bath you need soap, hot water, and 
plenty of " elbow grease" as a good hearty 
scrubbing is called. 

If you have done no dirty work at all, and 
only wish to get rid of the waste which you can- 
not see, but which has been cast out by your 
pores, a hard rub with a wet cloth, or sponging 
your body all over, will be enough every day, 
provided you take a good soap and hot water 
wash once or twice a week. 

If you can strip entirely, and wring a rough 
bathing towel out in cold or warm water, you 
can soon find out the best way to hold it and to 
go to work so as to rub it hard all over your 



About Bathing 131 

> 

body in less than a minute. Then, with another 
towel, you can dry yourself and get into a fine 
glow in another minute, thus taking only two 
minutes for your whole bath. 

Another five minutes devoted to your teeth, 
finger nails, and other parts of your body requir- 
ing special attention, will enable you to do all 
your washing in about seven minutes, and if you 
have short or only moderately long hair to brush 
and comb, you can get that in good order in five 
minutes or less. 

Now, seven minutes for washing, five for your 
hair, and five to don your clothes, will enable 
you to get all ready in seventeen minutes, pro- 
vided you waste no time, and train your muscle 
servants in such a way that they will always do 
their work both quickly and well. 

Every one by rising early enough can surely 
afford to spend seventeen minutes for a thorough 
morning toilet. In fact they will be much better 
off if they do, than by taking five or ten minutes 
merely to get dressed, and washing only their faces 
and hands, as so many children and even grown 
people do. 

But a person who begins the day in that way 
is beginning it all wrong. The skin, as you can 
easily notice, feels very different when dirty than 
when freshly washed. When clean, the pores 
are all open so the waste can be poured out 



132 Yourself 

freely, and the kidneys and lungs are not made to 
do extra work. 

52. Washing Babies. 

If you keep your skin nice and clean by daily 
washing, it won't matter a bit if you do play in 
the mud and get very dirty. 

That kind of dirt never hurts the body, nor 
stops up the pores, provided it does not stay on 
too long. The kind of dirt which does harm, is 
the waste from the body, which ought to be re- 
moved from the body every day if you wish to 
keep well. 

Some old-fashioned folks fancy that washing is 
very bad for people, especially if they are young 
or sickly ; but all the doctors will tell you that 
washing, on the contrary, helps every one to 
grow bigger and stronger. Of course, I do not 
mean soaking when I say washing. Soaking is 
good only for dirty clothes or for certain kinds 
of diseases, and children who stay in the water 
too long are sure to be ill. 

Sick people need baths just as much or even 
more than well people. They should be washed 
very often if you wish them to get well. Al- 
though they cannot get into a tub, or take a sponge 
bath themselves, you can give them a thorough 
cleaning by wetting a small part of their bodies 
at a time, drying that spot nicely, and keeping 



Washing Babies 133 

> 
all the rest carefully covered up in the mean- 
time. 

Babies, whose skin is so tender, ought to have 
a bath every day. If you are careful not to hurt 
or frighten them, and if both room and water 
are warm enough, the baby will be sure to enjoy 
his bath very much indeed. 

All babies should be very carefully dried with 
a soft towel, looking out for all the little creases, 
and then gently rubbed especially over the chest 
and back. If baby's skin looks red and sore in 
the creases, you should dust it over with a little 
pure corn-starch, or baby powder, or put some 
vaseline upon it. But if you are careful to keep 
your baby dry, to wash and dry him every time 
you change his diapers, and to use clean diapers 
only, it is not likely that any powder will be 
needed to keep his skin healthy. 

If baby's skin is not kept in first-class con- 
dition by frequent baths, his tiny pores (you can- 
not see them) will all be stopped up. His 
kidneys and lungs will thus have more than their 
share of work to do, and they will soon get tired. 
Neither skin, nor kidneys, nor lungs, can be in 
good health and temper unless each of them gets 
just the right treatment, and to treat your skin 
rightly you must keep it clean. 

I know some children, who, when sent to 
wash their hands, always wash the insides or 



-2.225 triy. --j :z:zt: the :i:ks ::" their '222.25 
and fingers. A good way to go to work is to pot 

" -2-.tr -2. 2 22;.- 222 t-2 5222t 5122 22 t.2t 2-.i~5 

::" b:ti 2222s. T222 rut 2iv,- y;ur s 2 2r 
Ciisp :re 2222 : 222; =:;u.-i 22:2 2.222: :: :2c 
y.'rt: 2222 .2 ::-, 222 rub t :.2t 22^:22:2 "-£:<-- 
•-2:: 222 izrzrzrz. 

.Vrer. y:u hive r:tter. 2!. :he rlrrtrs 222 the 
thumb of that hand clean in this way, rob the back 
of that same hand. Then clasp your wrist and 
screw that back and forth in your hand a few 
: 22ts A 2:12 rub :: the 2:22 up tc the eib:-v, 
will ~2-:t th-t 2222 222 2-22 quite 2 i 1 2 - . 

Next. 5:22 the 2 i e 2 r. 2222. 222 rive the :2e 
y:u rlrst useu 2s 2 rubber 2 -ut:c 22:2 52:ubb:r.g 

1- the 52222 V.-2-.-. 7b.tr. t2£t yCUr 222.il I" 222222- 

hing-brush, wet it, rob soap on it, and scrub your 

free: 2.2.. 5 very 2222 ':.:. 2. 22 2l.22t.-5 222 thumbs 
2i2se ttretht- 222. - st the bristles. 

A r::2 2.2s 22 222 irylrg =::e: this 2pt.-2t.2r: 
— which yon can learn to do Tery quickly with 
practice — will leave you with nice, dean hands. 



72 22. .1 V2U 

it to remove 

222t: y;_- 2 
tt S22tti :: 



:22thpi:k. 222 use 

222v be it:'t. ::;z2 

... 22 reiiy t: 22 

: = b'.e v.- -22. .y 



Every 2222. vr 



About Lunches i}$ 

■v 

careful not to eat or touch any kind of food 
unless his or her hands are perfectly clean. In 
the dirt and dust which we get on our hands, 
there are many little seeds of disease. If we 
swallow these, they may find a little corner in 
our bodies where they can grow, and they will 
soon spread from there and make the whole body 
very sick. 

The other day I was watching a house painter. 
He had been at work, and his hands were dirty 
and all daubed over with paint. When the noon 
whistle blew, he dropped his brush and took his 
dinner pail. As there was no water to be had, 
I wondered how he was going to manage to 
eat his dinner without its tasting of paint and 
dirt. 

So I watched him open his pail and take out a 
parcel all wrapped up in a nice white napkin. He 
carefully undid this napkin, and folded it around 
his sandwiches, which he handled in such a neat, 
deft way that his dirty fingers never once touched 
his food or came near his mouth except when all 
covered by the nice clean napkin. 

You see, that man knew that paint and dirt 
mixed with his food, would make him ill, and 
besides, although he had to work at a dirty trade, 
he was a nice clean fellow. As he could not 
wash before dinner, he did the next best thing. 
Still, I am quite sure that man had a good scrub- 



i$6 Yourself 

bing when he got home before he sat down to the 
family supper table. 

Some of the men who do the dirtiest work are 
really very clean, far cleaner than any of those 
who look much neater, but who do not take as 
good care of their bodies, or keep their skin in 
fine condition by plenty of washing. 

Many of the school children can learn a useful 
lesson from this house painter, as far as their own 
lunches are concerned. Some mothers have time 
to prepare the children's lunch nicely, but many 
boys and girls have to get their own ready or go 
without any. If you cannot have nice clean 
napkins or oiled paper, you can save up all the 
clean tissue and brown paper which comes into 
the house for future use. 

Cut this paper into squares of the right size, 
and wrap up each article of food separately, so 
that when you open it in school, it will tempt you 
to eat heartily and will not disgust others. Some 
of the teachers who are on duty during the noon 
hour have told me that they were often unable to 
touch their own lunches, because they had been 
so sickened by the sight of the messes which seme 
of the children had. 

Why not cut up your meat into small pieces, or 
mince it fine before you put it between slices of 
buttered bread ? Then, wrap your meat sand- 
wiches in a separate piece of paper from your 



No Right to be Dirty 157 

jant sandwiches. Cover your custard cup neatly 
with a paper ; wash your fruit clean and dry it 
nicely before you wrap it up too. Then pack 
your lunch in a tidy way in a box or basket, so 
that it will be as nice when you open it as when 
it was put in. 

Of course, in every school there are washstands 
where you can wash your hands before and after 
meals. If you are neat you will do so, and use a 
towel of your own which you keep in your desk 
for that purpose. Every person should have his 
or her own private towel, and use no other, 
whether at home, at school, in the office or shop. 
It is the only safe rule to follow, if you wish to 
run no risks of catching some nasty skin or eye 
disease, and, as you know, one cannot learn good 
habits too early. 

$4. No Right to be Dirty. 

In all my life I never heard of but one person 
who injured her health by too much washing. 
But I have heard of and seen any number of 
people who neglected their skin, and let it get in 
a shameful condition, which — although they did 
not know it or would not believe it if told — was 
one of the main reasons why they so often felt 
poorly. 

Dirty people not only harm themselves, but 
they are very offensive to clean people. One 



: : : "df 

dirty man or woman in a horse car, in a stage, or 
on a train, can poison ail the air, and make all 
the other passengers very uncomfortable. So yoa 
see, even if we do not respect oar crwn bad z 
and wish to keep them clean for our own sakes, 
we ought to be clean for the sake of others. 

This is a free country, and every one has a 
right to live and act as he pleases, provided 
he does not interfere with the rights of other 
people. But, no one has the right to poisou the 
air others breathe, so you see no one has really 
the right to be anything but clean if he wishes to 
live near other people. 

'. : :ities, the board of health arrests people 

whose houses are not kept clean, for we now 

know that dirt breeds disease. Before long, 

- r -f "i" r^en be laws which will make it right 

to arrest dirty persons, and all those who smell 



Meantime, each child who reads this book can 
see to it that his own skin is daily washed and 
thus kept in such good order, that never mind 
work he may do, or how dirty he may get 
the day, he will never be really offer.: - 
to any one. and can always respect himself. 

Because our body is always casting out refuse 
night and day, through the pores, the clothes we 
wear next the skin should be changed and washed 
very often. It is always best to have woolen, or 



No Right to be Dirty 139 

cojton and woolen underclothes, and of rather 
loose than tight texture and fit. You should 
take off these garments every night, give them a 
good shaking, so that all the dry waste can fly 
off, and hang them up to air during the night. 

Then you should put on clean night clothes, 
which you can take off in the morning, shake in 
their turn, and hang out of the window to air 
thoroughly before you put them away for the 
day. 

Underclothes and night clothes should be 
changed and washed at least once a week. The 
bed sheets, too, should be well shaken and aired 
every day, and changed and washed quite fre- 
quently. Much of our skin waste can be found 
on our sheets, as you can see for yourself if you 
shake your sheet against the light or in a sun- 
beam. A whole cloud of dust will fly off from 
it. This dust is body or skin refuse, and like 
all waste it should be gotten rid of, and not kept 
near the body any longer than needful. 

As every one likes to appear as well as possi- 
ble, I need not say much about your outside 
clothes. But remember, it is far more impor- 
tant for your health that your underclothes should 
be clean, dry, well aired and changed often, than 
that the clothes which everybody can see shall be 
handsome. Now that clothes are cheap and 
easy to buy ready made, there is no excuse for 



140 Yourself 

any one to be dirty, and good underwear can be 
bought for a few cents. 

55. About Handkerchiefs. 

In olden times, when the father of the family 
had to grow all the cotton and flax, and to raise 
all the wool used for garments, when the mother 
had to clean it, spin it, weave it, dye it, and 
make it up into clothes, with no help of sewing 
or any other of our fine machines, it is no wonder 
that people had too few clothes to change as 
often as good health requires. 

Even forty years ago, during our civil war, cot- 
ton was so very dear, that a handkerchief cost 
nearly a dollar. It is no wonder, therefore, that 
people who lived in those days could not, many of 
them, afford to buy handkerchiefs, and thus got 
into the habit of blowing their noses with their 
fingers. 

Now, that you can buy a handkerchief for two 
cents, — if need be, — there is no excuse whatever, 
for not having one always on hand, and a clean 
one at that. All children should therefore learn 
very early to have a handkerchief, and to use it 
to keep their noses and mouths clean, and to 
wipe off their fingers when necessary. 

A child who does not have a handkerchief, and 
use it freely instead of snuffing or sniffling, has 
not been well brought up, and should be taught 



A Wise Law 141 

good habits as soon as possible. All the children 
who read this book are of course old enough to 
know how to use their handkerchiefs, but they 
should also be careful to teach their little brothers 
and sisters how to use them too, so that they can 
keep clean, and never present the disgusting 
sight of a dirty nose. Little children can be 
nicely trained in this matter very early, provided 
their older brothers and sisters are careful and 
always give them a good example. 

Boys may think it is manly to imitate some 
old workmen they have seen, and to blow their 
noses with their fingers. These boys evidently 
do not know that if handkerchiefs had been as 
cheap and plenty when those men were young, 
as they are now, these men would never have 
gotten into habits which shock people now be- 
cause they are neither clean nor nice. 

$6. A Wise Law. 

People should also always use their handker- 
chiefs whenever they have anything in their 
mouths which they wish to spit out. Doctors have 
found out, within the last few years, that spittle 
often contains many little disease seeds or germs. 
When the spittle dries, these little germs are set 
free, caught up by the wind, and begin to fly 
about. 

Then they can be drawn right into other peo- 



142 Ycursclf 

pie's lungs, where they often find little corners 
where they can settle down comfortably and 
grow until they cannot be driven out any more. 
The person in whose lungs they thus settle, soon 
grows weak and ill, and thousands of people 
die every year from disease caught in just this 
way. 

Because the spittle from one sick person — 
who may not know he is sick — can make many 
others ill, the laws in certain cities and states 
forbid spitting in the street, inanyconveyar.ee, 
or in a public building. Any one who disobeys 
this law is likely to be arrested or fined. 

I am sure that all you children will now see 
how wise this law is, and how important it is for 
public health that no one shoulc evei be allowed 
to break it. Our duty is, therefore, to watch 
over ourselves closely, to see that we always 
spit in our handkerchiefs only, to train all the 
younger children to do so too, and to help the 
police in every way :: er.:':::e a lav,- which was 
made to guard us one and all from a deadly 
enemy. 

If there is a consumptive person in your house, 
he or she should not only sleep in a bed but in a 
room alone. Besides, there should always be 
plenty of fresh air in this room. 

Even a person only a little consumptive should 
never spit into anything but a paper handker- 



Catching Diseases 143 

•v 

chief, which should be used only a few times, 
and then burned, so as to make sure that all the 
little disease seeds are killed right away. 

If cotton or linen handkerchiefs are used, they 
should always be boiled. After clothes have 
been thoroughly boiled they can always be used 
again by any one without danger. In that way 
only, one can make sure that all the little disease 
seed are killed before they can do any one else 
any harm. If everybody were really careful 
about these things, there would not be nearly as 
many sick people in the world as there are now, 
and everybody would therefore be much happier. 

57. Catching Diseases. 

There are many, many " catching" diseases, a 
few of which every one is likely to take some 
time in his life. Some are caught by breathing 
in little disease seeds, or by catching a sick per- 
son's breath, and some are taken by touching a 
sick person's skin or some article of dress he or 
she has worn. Chicken-pox, measles, whoop- 
ing-cough, mumps, scarlet-fever, diphtheria and 
smallpox are all diseases which spread very rap- 
idly, unless great care is taken to prevent their 
doing so. 

While chicken-pox, measles, mumps and 
whooping-cough are quite common, and not all 
dangerous in themselves, children often die from 



144 Yourself 

these very diseases, if they do not receive proper 
care while they have them. 

You may think your mamma very unkind to 
keep you in bed or in a dark room when you 
perhaps hardly feel sick at all. But mamma 
knows that if you catch cold while suffering from 
any of these diseases, you may be very ill indeed, 
so ill that may be you will die, or be sickly all 
the rest of your life. 

Your mother also knows that a child who has 
the measles, should always be kept in a dark 
room, for if the light shines into your eyes while 
you are thus ill, you may have weak or sore eyes 
for many years afterwards. 

Scarlet-fever, diphtheria, and smallpox are 
much worse diseases than measles or whooping- 
cough, and for that reason all the doctors and 
health boards watch over those who have them. 
They do so because they wish to prevent their 
being careless, or doing anything which would 
spread those diseases. 

Every person in our country should feel it a 
sacred duty to be as careful as possible not to 
give any sickness to any one else. A child with 
the mumps, the whooping-cough or any other 
catching disease, should be taught to keep far 
away from all other children until all danger of 
giving it to them is entirely over. 

It is because vour teachers do not wish the 



About Wet Feet 14$ 

other children to run any risk of getting sick, that 
they send you home whenever they think you 
may have any catching disease, or when they 
know there is such an illness in your house, and 
fear that you may bring it to others in your 
clothes. 

There are also many catching skin and eye 
diseases ; so if you see a child with sore eyes, or 
a blotchy or pimply skin, you had better keep 
far away from him, until your mother can find 
out whether it is quite safe for you to sit or play 
together. The best way to avoid being ill, or 
catching unpleasant things, is to keep well and 
happy yourself, to be perfectly clean, not to take 
cold, and to stay far away from any one from 
whom you could catch anything unpleasant. 

$8. About Wet Feet. 

People can get very sick if they are not careful 
to keep warm and dry when it is cold or rainy. 
If you have not clothes enough to keep warm, 
just fold some old newspapers around your back 
and chest, and put on your clothes over them. 

Paper is the warmest and lightest thing any 
one can wear, and for that reason many poor 
people make paper comfortables for their beds 
by sewing a number of newspapers together. 
Sometimes, to prevent these newspapers from 
tearing, they are fastened between two thick- 



1 46 Yourself 

nesses of calico. In that way fine large comfort- 
ables can be made for less than twenty-five cents 
a piece. 

When you get wet, or even damp, you should 
always change your clothes right away. If you 
cannot do so, keep moving briskly until you have 
a chance to change them, for you will be far less 
likely to take cold if you keep your body warm 
inside by plenty of exercise. 

Your feet especially should always be dry, so 
do not grumble any more when mamma tells you 
to change your shoes and stockings. Instead of 
pouting, see how quickly you can obey, and find 
out in how short a time a smart boy or girl can 
get out of wet shoes and stockings and into dry 
ones. Some people can do it inside of two min- 
utes ; can you beat that record } Try it next 
time your feet are wet and find out. 

In driving past a poor cottage one cold day, 
a lady saw several little bare-footed children. 
She felt sorry for the poor little things when she 
saw their blue legs and feet, and bought them 
each two pairs of strong shoes and thick stock- 
ings. The children and their mother were de- 
lighted, and every time the lady passed the little 
ones waved their hands and pointed joyfully at 
their nicely clothed feet. 

But one day no children were playing in front 
of the cottage door. The lady was so surprised 



About Wet Feet 147 

that she got out of the carriage, and knocked 
at the door. When the mother opened, there 
was an awful scowl on her face and when the 
lady asked : " Where are the children, are they 
sick?" 

" Sick ! sure and it's almost dead they are I " 
answered the woman angrily. " And it's all your 
fault 1 They never were sick before, and now 
they all have croup and the doctor says it's all be- 
cause they wore wet shoes and stockings I " 

11 Why didn't you make them change their 
shoes and stockings, if their feet were wet?" 
asked the lady. " I gave each child two pairs of 
shoes and stockings on purpose." 

But the woman would not listen. She ran into 
the house, gathered up all the shoes and stockings 
and threw them at the lady's feet, saying, " Take 
back your old shoes and stockings, and don't 
come here any more trying to kill my children ! " 
Then she slammed the door in her face. Do 
you think this woman was right ? What do you 
think she should have done ? 

To keep one's feet dry, it is best to wear thick 
shoes, leggings, and rubbers in stormy weather. 
But these should be worn only out of doors. 
As soon as you get in the house, always be sure 
to take off your rubbers, for else your feet will 
grow tender and sore, and you will be far more 
likely to catch cold and be ill. 



148 Yourself 

You see, as you are the owners and keepers of 
your little houses, you always have to bear in 
mind how you can best keep them in first-class 
order and repair, so that you won't need to be 
ashamed of their appearance or feel uncomfort- 
able. 

Any master who lives in a badly kept house, 
can neither be comfortable nor happy, and his 
house will soon go to pieces. Besides he is not 
faithful, for God has given each of us a house to 
be used but not to be abused. 

$9. The Hair and Finger Nails. 

The hair which grows so thickly all over your 
head has to be kept in good order, if you do not 
wish to look like a savage or a Shetland pony. 
Hair gets dirty as well as the skin, and needs 
a good washing every once in a while. 

Boys who keep their hair short all their lives, 
have no trouble in washing it. They should give 
their heads a good scrubbing at least once a 
week, and oftener if they work at some dusty or 
dirty trade. 

A good combing and hard brushing will keep 
your hair in order the rest of the time. It does 
not need to be plastered down with hair oil or 
water to look neat. In fact, it will be much 
better for your hair and scalp (the skin on your 
head), if you are satisfied to comb and brush and 



The Hair and Finger Nails 149 

wash your hair, whenever it needs it, and to 
leave it alone the rest of the time. 

Each hair is supplied with its own little oil- 
can, hidden under the skin, which pours out just 
enough of the right kind of oil to keep it in good 
condition, and you do not need to add any other 
kind of grease. The shorter a boy keeps his 
hair, the easier it will be to keep it clean. For 
that reason soldiers and officers always keep it 
cut as closely as possible. 

Girls who have long hair ought always to cover 
it with a cap or handkerchief, while they are 
sweeping or dusting or doing any other dirty 
work. If they are careful about this matter, 
their hair will keep clean longer, and will not 
need to be washed so often. 

A girl's hair needs washing only about once a 
month, provided she is very careful when sweep- 
ing, does not perspire much, and combs and 
brushes it thoroughly morning and evening. 

When the hair is long, or curly and thick, it is 
apt to tangle pretty badly. The quickest and 
easiest way to get the snarls out, wivhout break- 
ing or pulling out any hair, is to hold the hair 
firmly in one hand, and the comb in the other. 

Begin within an inch or two of the ends, and 
comb down. When the comb runs smoothly 
through that part of the hair, start an inch or two 
further up, and again comb downward. By pro- 



no Yourself 

ceeding thus, you take out the tangles little by 
little, and really get through your task much 
sooner and with far less discomfort. 

Nicely combed, smoothly brushed and neatly 
braided or twisted hair always looks pretty. But 
flying locks are never very tidy, and curls and 
frizzes, not of nature's own making, are a great 
waste of time and patience. 

You should always do your hair up neatly be- 
fore leaving your room in the morning, and if you 
want it to look nice and last long, you should 
brush and comb it also before you go to bed, and 
see that it is done up securely so as not to be 
in your way and not to get badly tangled while 
you are asleep. 

Finger nails need brushing almost every time 
you wash your hands, and they need cleaning 
whenever they are the least bit dirty. Still, you 
should never clean them in public, but do this in 
your own room, in the toilet room, or when you are 
sure you are alone. Never mind what dirty work 
you have to do, you can, if you like, have clean 
hands and finger nails when your work is over. 

Finger and toe nails should be kept just short 
enough to come even with the tops or ends 
of fingers and toes. It is always best to cut 
them with sharp scissors, and a little practice 
will soon enable you to cut those on your right 
hand as well as on your left. 



The Hair and Finger Nails i$i 

When cutting your finger nails, you may if you 
choose round off the corners. You should care- 
fully push back the skin at the bottom or root of 
the nail so the little half moon shows. If you 
push back the skin in this way you won't have 
any hang nails. 

As your shoes press on either side of your feet 
you should cut your toe nails straight across and 
not round off the corners. If you do, you may 
suffer from ingrowing toe nails which hurt very 
badly. 

There are many children, — and some grown 
ups — who, I am sorry to say, bite their finger 
nails. This is a very bad and unpleasant habit, 
which may harm them and which also makes 
other people very uncomfortable. 

As our hands touch everything, they are, of 
course, most likely to get dirty and to pick up 
tiny disease seeds, which, if we put our fingers to 
our lips, may be swallowed and perhaps make us 
ill. Besides, finger nails are very tough, and 
the sharp parings may damage the tender skin of 
the stomach and pipes through which they have 
to pass before they can be cast out of the body 
as waste. 

Next time you cut your nails just take a paring 
and jab yourself with it. You will soon find out 
that it is pretty sharp and that it can pierce even 
the tough skin on your hand. So, finger nails, if 



1 52 Yourself 

swallowed can punch tiny holes in your inner 
tubes and do lots of mischief down there. Doc- 
tors will even tell you of cases where children 
have died merely because they had the bad habit 
of biting their finger nails and swallowing the 
little bits in their mouths. 

Now any bad habit can be broken if you try 
hard enough all the time, and surely any sensible 
boy or girl will understand that this habit is not 
only offensive to others, but very dangerous to 
the one who practices it, and will therefore try 
to get rid of it as soon as possible. 

60. The Telegraph Office. 

We have already talked considerably about the 
master who dwells in each human house, be it 
little or big, pretty or homely, good or bad. 
This master is the real person, the mind, or 
spirit, which does all the thinking, planning and 
directing. 

House masters are as different as the places 
they dwell in, but each one has to stay in the 
house where God placed him so long as life lasts. 

Most of us believe that when the human house 
is worn out, and falls into decay, God allows the 
master to move out and occupy a better one, 
provided he has shown he is fit to be trusted by 
taking proper care of this one and making the 
best use of it. 



The Telegraph Office 153 

As we have already said, each master lives in 
the top story of the house, where he can look 
out of the two windows, and see all that is going 
on. His whole house is very wonderful, but the 
most wonderful and interesting part of all, is 
surely that in the bone box called the skull. 

The master's office is in there, so are the main 
telegraph and telephone station of the house. 
From these stations start any number of tele- 
graph wires — or nerves. Nerves are tiny white 
cords, so small that you cannot see them, except 
when many of them run along side by side, and 
thus form thick cables of many fine wires or 
threads. 

Although many of these little telegraph wires 
start out and run to every part of the face, the 
greater part of them run down your back to- 
gether, and then branch off from there to all the 
different parts of your body inside and out. 

The biggest nerve cable, (which is made up of 
ever so many fine threads) runs right through the 
little bones which form the spine, stringing them 
all together like beads. With bones all around 
it — bones which have many joints and can there- 
fore bend almost any way you please — the nerves 
of the spine are so well protected, that they can 
do their work without running much risk of be- 
ing broken or damaged. 

You can see in pictures just how little branch 



154 Y curs elf 

telegraphs start off, here and there, along the 
main line. But pictures only show ihe bi^^es: 
nerves or wires. If they tried to show you all 
the fine little ones, there would be such a net- 
work of white lines that you could no longer see 
where any of them went and would be greatly 
bewildered. 

There are so many nerves, because every hair 
on our body, every pore in our skin, every little 
wee bit of tube, and every scrap of muscle or 
bene has its own nerve, so as to send a message 
if necessary. Night and day. as long as we live, 
messages Bash back and forth along these little 
nerves. Not a breath is drawn, not a motion is 
made, not a heart beat takes place, without the 
nerves sending orders to have it done and report- 
ing just how it was done. 

If the poor master of the house had to direct 
everv breath, everv heart beat, and all the other 
wonderful things which are always going on, 
night and day in his house, he would have no 
zr.ir.ee at ail to sleep, to think, or to enjoy him- 
self. So the greater part of the work in his 
house is done by clever servants, who do not 
trouble him in any way. 

There is for instance, a servant in the breath- 
ing telegraph office. He sends all the orders 
about breathing, year in and year out, and sees 
to it that all goes on well in his department, 



The Telegraph Office 155 

whether the master is watching him or not. 
Sometimes the master asks this servant how 
things are running, orders him to take extra long 
breaths, makes him keep the bellows very full of 
air, or empty them quickly or slowly. But gen- 
erally the master lets the breathing servant man- 
age his work just as he pleases. 

As long as the master does not wear tight 
clothes (which prevent the ribs from rising, and 
the muscle wall from sinking when the bellows 
fill with air), and as long as he can get plenty of 
nice pure air, the breathing servant is quite 
happy, and need not consult his master. But 
when the air is too damp or too cold, when it is 
smoky or not pure, or when there is not room 
enough for the bellows to open wide and receive 
all the air they can hold, this servant gets sorely 
troubled. Then he sends messages to the master, 
who can pay heed to them or not just as he 
chooses. But if the master does not listen to 
them, he is not doing his duty, and soon all will 
go wrong in his little house. 

There is another station, where a servant re- 
ceives all the messages from the Pumping Dwarfs, 
and gives them the necessary orders. In another 
place all the messages from the stomach are re- 
ceived and answered. There is also one for the 
skin, one for the kidneys, one for the eyes, one 
for the ears, and so on, because each bone, each 



i $6 Yourself 

muscle, each cell, each tube, and all the different 
parts of the body we have mentioned, have nerves 
which run straight to certain stations. 

As all these stations are managed by skilful 
servants, the house master does not need to 
bother about them at all. Besides, they are all 
connected with the main office, the brain, where 
he sits, and the minute anything is wrong, or 
needs his attention, he knows perfectly well that 
those trusty servants will send him notice. 

61. About Nerves. 

If the master is clever, knows how his house 
is made, what his servants need, and how his 
machinery can be kept in the best order, he can 
easily find out what is wrong, whenever he re- 
ceives a message saying that things are not run- 
ning smoothly. 

When any one knows just what is wrong, he 
generally knows how to set it right, and how to 
prevent any further trouble of the same kind. A 
good master can, therefore, see not only that the 
damage is repaired as soon as possible, but that 
the same accident does not occur again. 

But a stupid, careless, or ignorant master, gets 
quite bewildered, whenever any of his servants 
send word that anything is out of order. He 
does not try to find out what is the matter, or to 
set it straight, but only growls and grumbles be- 



About Nerves itf 

cause he is disturbed and made uncomfortable. 
When too unhappy or uneasy, he sends for a 
doctor to set things right for him, but often a 
little common sense, used in time, would have 
made everything right, and prevented all this fuss 
and damage. 

The nerves, like the muscles, are apt to get 
very tired, for they too, use up a little of their 
material every time they do anything. Still, if 
the blood-boats bring them plenty of wholesome 
food, fresh air, and other materials for repair, 
they will keep well, work well, and be happy, 
provided you give them enough rest. In fact, 
people with really healthy nerves, are those who 
never know that they have any, that is to say 
who never feel them in any unpleasant way. 

If the nerves do not get food, air, or rest 
enough, or if they are squeezed too tightly, or 
hurt in any other way, they are very likely to be 
unhappy and ache. When they feel very badly, 
they make the master of the house so uncom- 
fortable, that he knows there is something wrong, 
and that he has nerves. Often, other people 
know it too, and then they call him nervous. 

When a grown person, or a doctor, talks about 
nerves or nervousness, it is generally all right, 
but when children complain that they are nerv- 
ous it is all wrong. Your fathers and mothers, 
who often have to be up all night with sick 



1 58 Yourself 

children, who have to work all day, look after the 
housekeeping, make and mend all your clothes, 
plan how to make a little money buy all you need, 
and do many other things, are of course very tired. 
They wear out every day more nerve material 
than food, air and the little rest they get, can re- 
pair. As you can plainly see, they cannot be 
anything but nerve-tired or nervous. 

But children, who sleep all night, who have 
no cares, and who do very little hard work, 
have no excuse whatever for having tired nerves. 
When such children are nervous, you may be 
very sure it is either because they are not eating 
the right kind of food at the right time, because 
they play too hard, read too exciting stories, or 
perhaps because they do not get enough air or 
exercise. 

A little girl who was fond of putting on airs, 
once told her mamma she was far too nervous to 
go to school, but quite well enough to go to a 
party ! The mother, who knew that when chil- 
dren talk about nerves it is all nonsense, and 
only means that they are spoiled, answered : 
"You, nervous! What nonsense. Don't you 
know that nerves don't grow until you are 
forty ! " 

Her little girl never talked to her about nerves 
again. Now, that mother knew perfectly well 
that even the smallest babies have nerves, but 



The Brain Storehouse i$o 

what she meant, was that until one has lived long 
enough and worked hard enough to feel nerve- 
tired, one has no right even to pretend to be 
nervous. 

Children when really ill can be nervous for a 
little while, and then every one is sure to be very 
kind and patient with them. But unless they are 
very ill, you may be sure that what they call 
nervousness, is nothing but crossness. They can 
stop crying, or fretting, or fidgeting, if they 
like, and the sooner they learn to do so, the bet- 
ter for themselves and for everybody else. Any 
person who gives way to such feelings without 
real cause, is very weak-minded, and lacks self- 
control. 

62. The Brain Storehouse. 

Up in the brain there are a great many little 
storehouses, in each of which there are many 
little cells or bottles. In some strange way, 
every message received is kept in these wee 
cells. As soon as the servants in the central 
station receive a message, they bottle it up, and 
put it away where they can easily find it again. 

They are such careful servants that they never 
make any mistakes. All the messages about 
form are therefore stored away in one place, all 
those about color in another, all those about 
smell in a third, and so it goes on. There is a 



160 Yourself 

place for everything in the brain, and everything 
is in its place. 

Let us suppose that the master is sitting up in 
his office, half asleep, with the shutters of his 
windows tightly closed. All at once, through the 
ear. nerve close beside him, he hears the one 
word " rose." " What is rose ? " he asks. 

Then each of the little servants in turn tells 
him what is stored up in his " rose cells." The 
smell servant informs him how nice it smelled, 
the color servant that it was pink, or red, or 
white, or yellow, the place servant of the spot 
where it grew, the feel servant how soft its 
petals were and how hard its stem. Next 
the friendship servant reminds him that it 
was given to him by some one he loved, the 
memory servant that he has seen other roses, or 
that he helped to plant the bush on which it 
grew, and the worship servant, that the rose was 
made by God, for the delight of man. 

So, you see, one word, or one thought, stirs 
up a big to-do in the brain station ; and, when- 
ever the master chooses, his servants will tell him 
all they know about anything, by bringing out all 
the information stowed away in their little cells. 

63. Good and Bad Stores. 

Now we will suppose two little boys playing 
together. Billy, without meaning to do so. hits 



Good and Bad Stores 161 

Johnny. A message flashes up from the place 
where Johnny was struck, saying: "I am hurt. 
What shall I do?" Then comes another mes- 
sage from the eyes, saying: " It was Billy who 
hurt you, I saw him strike you." 

When the message servant is asked: "What 
shall I do ? " he does not know, and asks the 
master. If the master says: " Hit Billy," he 
quickly sends out a message which makes Johnny's 
fist strike Billy hard. 

Besides, the servant tucks away in the brain 
storehouse a record of the blow received, and 
one of the blow given. Now if Johnny is a boy 
who is always ready to hit back, this servant will 
find many, many other little cells up in his brain 
storehouse, packed with the memory of blows. 

Then the servant will say to himself: " Ha ! 
every time my master receives a blow, he always 
says : ' Hit back.' So I do not need to ask 
him any more what to do. Next time he is 
struck I'll just send word right away to the fists 
to strike hard, without troubling him at all about 
it." 

If Johnny said : " Hit back," then thought 
better of it before his fists could really strike, and 
made them stop, the message servant records both 
of these facts. The next time a blow is given, he 
looks up the two records and is likely to say : 

" No ; no ; I must not send orders to the fists 



1 62 Yourself 

to hit back, because last time master decided 
that it was best not to strike, although he wanted 
to do so very badly." 

Thus, you see, the little servants, if left to 
themselves, will be sure to act in the way their 
master usually wishes. They consult the records, 
find out what the master generally does, and un- 
less he sends contrary orders, always act in just 
that way. 

When very little I was told that God and the 
angels saw all that I was doing, and knew all I 
was saying or thinking. I was also told that the 
angels kept a big book, in which they wrote 
down all I said or did, so that they could read it 
out loud on judgment day. That seemed very 
wonderful to me. 

But what is really more wonderful, is that all our 
words, all our thoughts, all our actions are kept 
recorded in our own brain. We may try to for- 
get certain things, but when they are once lodged 
in one of those wee cells, nothing we can ever 
do can change them in any way. 

Each person bears in his brain a complete 
record of all he has said, or thought and done. 
People who think kind thoughts, therefore have 
their kindness storehouse well stocked, and 
people who think mean thoughts have the mean 
storehouse full of horrid messages stored away in 
their brain. 



Good and Bad Stores 163 

Our message servants must surely be very 
sorry, at times, to have to record certain things, 
and we can imagine one of them, for instance, 
saying: "See, this is the selfish storehouse. 
Just look how many cells are stored away here I 
And each one is full of some selfish deed or 
thought. I don't like to look at this big supply 
of selfishness. Over here, in the unselfish store- 
room, there are only a very few small cells, filled 
with unselfish deeds and thoughts." 

Whenever a message comes up in such a house, 
saying: " Shall I give up my own will and play 
the game my sister wishes, or shall I make her 
play what I wish?" the answer the message 
servant always sends is : " Make her do as you 
like," unless the master stops it. 

Every master should look closely after his 
storehouses. He cannot pack some of them too 
full, but there are others which should remain as 
nearly empty as possible. The storehouses 
which he should fill up are those of truth, 
bravery, purity, generosity, unselfishness ; and 
those which should remain empty, are the store- 
houses where all the bad, greedy, selfish, untruth- 
ful, cowardly, mean and dirty words and deeds 
are stored away. 

It is these records — which never lie — which 
make up what is known as a person's character. 
A good character is the grandest possession any 



164 Yourself 

one can have. All the money, all the genius, all 
the talent in the world, are not so precious as a 
good character. 

You may work very hard and still never get rich, 
you may try very hard and yet never get to be a 
great poet, or musician, or artist, or general, or 
statesman, or anything else. But you can, if 
you choose, see that your telegraph servants have 
none but good deeds and kind words to store 
away, and thus build up day by day a fine char- 
acter, the only thing which no one can ever take 
away from you, and which will be a satisfaction 
to you forever. 

Besides, "It is said there are ten things for 
which no one has yet been sorry — for doing good 
to all, for speaking evil of none, for hearing both 
sides before judging, for thinking before speak- 
ing, for holding an angry tongue, for being kind 
to the distressed, for asking pardon for all wrong, 
for being patient towards everybody, for stopping 
the ears to a tale-bearer, for disbelieving all ill 
reports. " 

Any one who can train himself to do this is 
sure to have a fine character in the end. 

When a great writer (Walter Scott) was on his 
deathbed, he said to his son-in-law : " My dear, 
be a good man, be virtuous — be religious. Be a 
good man. Nothing else will give you any com- 
fort when you come to lie here." 



About Sleep 16$ 

When people are in sudden danger of death by 
drowning, fire, or anything of the sort, we are 
told that all they have done or said, flashes in a 
moment through their minds. Just think what a 
relief it must be, when few but good and lovely 
deeds or words come to stare one in the face 
when one stands on the brink of eternity ! 

64. About Sleep. 

The brain, like all the other parts of our body, 
needs good food, fresh air (both of which are 
brought to it by the blood-boats), and plenty of 
exercise and of rest, if you wish to keep it 
strong and well. By thinking hard, studying and 
playing with a will, and by doing everything in 
a brisk, wide-awake and interested way, you give 
your brain healthful exercise. By sleeping long 
and soundly every night, you give it the needed 
rest. 

Wee babies, whose brains are still very weak, 
and who have everything to learn, sleep a great 
deal. In fact, they sleep nearly all the time, — 
which is the very best thing babies can do. Still, 
as they grow older, and notice more things, they 
become interested in themselves, and in the 
world around them, and stay awake for a longer 
space of time so as to study everything they see. 

Almost every baby, if carefully trained from 
the very first hour of its life, can learn to go to 



1 66 Yourself 

sleep without rocking, singing, or fuss of any 

kind. He can also be trained very soon to sleep 
many hours at once at night without waking up 
even to be fed. A baby does not, of course, 
know what he really wants or needs. He is not 
aware, for instance, of the fact that his little 
stomach needs a rest between meals. If grown 
people are not sensible, and leed him every time 
he wakes up or cries, it will only make him more 
likely to wake up and cry. Then he will soon 
turn into a little tyrant, who will make himself 
and everybody else very unhappy. 

By the time a baby is a year old, his waking 
times are much longer, and his sleeping hours far 
shorter. Still, he should always go to bed by 
six o clock, and stay there twelve or thirteen 
hours, with very little care or attention during 
that time, receiving food once or twice only, as 
the doctor thinks best. 

Babies of that age also take two naps every 
day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. 
Until nearly five years of age, every child needs 
a nap in the daytime, and about twelve hours 
sleep at night, if you wish him to keep well and 
grow strong. 

After that, and until ten. a long night rest of 
twelve or thirteen hours will give him enough 
sleep. Children between ten and fourteen 
should always get about eleven hours rest, and 



Home After Dark 167 

for the next few years, especially if growing fast, 
nine or ten hours sleep will not prove a bit too 
much. 

It is far wiser to go to bed at eight o'clock 
and get up at six, if you have any studying to 
do, than to sit up until ten or eleven, and then 
rise only in time to rush off to school. In fact, 
most children are far too tired and sleepy to do 
any studying at all at night ; but in the morning, 
their brains are so rested and bright, that they 
can learn much faster and better. 

If you rise early to study, it is well to drink a 
glass of milk slowly, and to eat a cracker or 
piece of bread before you set to work. If you 
drink your milk fast, or all at once, it is likely to 
form into a big hard lump in your stomach, and 
then your little Dwarf will have such a bad time 
rolling it about, and pulling it to pieces, that it 
may put him out of temper for the rest of the 
day. 

So be careful of his feelings, and drink your 
milk slowly. Then, it will form down in your 
stomach, into many little balls, which your Dwarf 
can handle very easily, and get rid of long before 
it is time for the family breakfast. 

65. Home After Dark. 

Boys and girls who go to bed very early and 
study in the morning, are much more apt to do 



1 68 Yourself 

good work in school, and to stand well in their 
classes, than those who sit up late. 

Late hours are very bad for children of all 
ages. Besides that, no child or very young per- 
son should ever be out alone after nightfall. 
Mothers who allow their children to remain out 
on the street after dark, are really very unkind 
to them. Sunlight and air are good for every- 
body, and children should have plenty of play, 
but after dark they should always be gathered in 
like chickens, close under mother's wing, so that 
no harm can come to them. 

It is much nicer to be at home with father and 
mother, than wandering around the streets like a 
stray cat. Mothers who are careful of their 
children always try to keep them in, but if you 
have no kind mother to look after you, you 
should make it a rule to watch yourself, and 
never to stir away from home after dark. 

Girls, in particular, cannot be too careful 
about this matter. As very bad girls stroll 
around at night, good girls will surely be mis- 
taken for bad if they are seen out of doors after 
dark. In fact, no decent woman ever goes out 
alone after nightfall, unless she has to do so. 

In that case, she goes straight about her busi- 
ness, looking neither right nor left, and hurries 
back home as quickly as she can, so that every 
one who sees her may know that she is not out 



Home After Dark 169 

for her pleasure, but through necessity. None 
of you girls should ever pout or be cross when 
mother insists on your coming in at nightfall, and 
staying in the house until the next morning. It 
is the kindest and wisest thing she can do, and 
instead of grumbling, you ought to put your arms 
around her neck, and hug her for being so care- 
ful of you. 

Many a boy and girl has learned evil ways, 
and gotten into bad habits which ruined a life, 
merely because allowed to linger out of doors 
and stroll around for pleasure after dark. 

You may be out many times without any harm 
happening to you, but it is always best to keep 
on the safe side of things, and in this case that 
means to learn to be happy and to make others 
happy in your own home. 

I know several large families of boys and girls, 
who grew up to manhood and womanhood with- 
out ever having gone out at night for pleasure, 
save in the company of their father or mother. 
Those men and women now often say how glad 
they are that their parents were so strict about 
this matter, and their hearts are very sore 
when they see swarms of young people out in 
the streets at night, and think how sorry all 
those youngsters will feel, later on, to remember 
that they spent so many precious hours in that 
way. 



170 Yourself 

66. About Beds and Bedding. 

If you have eaten just enough plain, wholesome 
food, drunk pure water, worked and played hard, 
and done only what is right, you will have no 
trouble in falling asleep almost as soon as your 
head touches the pillow, never mind how early 
you go to bed. 

To have a good night's rest, it is often wise 
not to play or work too hard just before you go 
to bed. Then, too, make sure that your skin is 
quite clean, that your night clothes are loose, and 
that your bed is neatly made. 

Next, see that your windows are open in such 
a way as to supply plenty of fresh air, without 
the wind blowing in on you, and that there are 
enough blankets on your bed to keep you just 
comfortably warm but not too hot. 

Lie on your back or side, straightening out 
your limbs and back, and do not curl up like a 
dog or a caterpillar. A hard mattress and a thin 
pillow make the very best kind of a bed for grow- 
ing boys and girls, each of whom should sleep 
alone whenever it can be managed. 

Doctors tell us that in some strange way, two 
people sleeping together are very likely to sap 
one another's strength. An old person sleeping 
with a child, robs the little one of much of the 
strength it needs to grow and be happy. When 
children sleep together, they may not rob each 



About Beds and Bedding 171 

other of so ..much strength, but they are sure to 
disturb one another, and not to get as much, or 
as restful sleep, as if each were alone in his bed. 

I know some country children who make their 
own beds by gathering nice clean corn-husks, 
drying them carefully, tearing them into narrow 
strips, and stuffing them into clean bed ticks. 
This makes fine mattresses, which can be well 
shaken up every day. Straw in a bed tick, also 
makes a good mattress, so you see any child can 
have his own bed at very small cost. Besides, 
a cot can now be bought for a dollar or less, and 
any child who is willing to work, can easily earn 
that much money to buy a bed of his or her 
own. 

In some houses where there are many children, 
and only very little room, some fathers have 
cleverly made "double deck beds," such as are 
seen also in the newsboys' lodging-houses. In 
this way, each child can sleep alone, and still the 
bed takes up less floor room than one broad 
enough for two or more youngsters. 

As for baby, a clothes basket padded with 
cotton batting, and neatly lined with calico that 
can be washed, makes an excellent bed. One 
woman I heard about had such a cradle for her 
baby. By means of a clothes-line, and a few 
small pulleys screwed into the ceiling, this basket 
was cleverly swung right over the foot of her 



172 Yourself 

bed, so that she could raise it above or lower it 
down on the bed whenever she pleased. 

Thus, if the baby cried or needed anything in 
the night, the mother stretched out her hand, 
loosed the rope from its fastenings near the bed- 
head, and lowered the basket beside her. Then 
she could reach the baby, without getting up, or 
catching cold by stepping out of a warm bed on 
a cold floor. As soon as baby had been cared 
for, the basket was swung up again, out of reach 
of all harm, yet not near enough to the ceiling for 
the child to breathe the bad or hot air which is 
always found there. Of course, such a cradle is 
good for a small baby only, for when the young- 
sters begin to climb, it is far better to have a crib 
for them, with a good strong railing all around it. 

67. Lying Abed Mornings. 

If you don't sleep well, if you have bad 
dreams, and if you wake up frightened, you may 
be quite sure it is because you have done some- 
thing you should not. You have either eaten 
something which was not good for you, breathed 
bad air, drunk impure water, worked or played 
too much, or too little, or have been too excited. 
All you need to do is to watch yourself closely 
the next day, and if you are wise, and live aright, 
you will soon sleep soundly all night, and not 
know a thing until you wake up in the morning. 



Lying Abed Mornings 173 

Some children get in the bad habit of lying 
abed , mornings stretching and gaping, and taking 
another little nap. This is, as we have said, a 
very bad habit. You should, instead, train your- 
self to hop right out of bed when you wake up, 
and not to waste any time in the waking process. 
In fact, a cold water bath is the very best thing 
to wake any one up very thoroughly. 

A great English General (Wellington) used to 
make his soldiers rise at once when the call 
sounded, for he always said : " When it is time 
to turn over, it is time to turn out." Our own 
great general, George Washington, also believed 
in doing everything promptly, for when a young 
officer was tardy one morning, and kept Wash- 
ington and his staff waiting, he sternly said : 
"Sir, you may choose to waste your own time, 
but you have no right to waste ours." 

Time spent sleeping is never wasted, provided 
we have earned the right to sleep, and that we 
need rest. But the lazy boy or girl, who drags 
about from one easy chair to another all day, 
who neither plays nor studies with any energy, 
has certainly not earned the right to rest. Still, 
such children do sleep a great deal, very often, 
but their sleep does them no good. They crawl 
slowly out of bed every morning, and are heavy 
and stupid. Indeed they well deserve the name 
of "Sleepy-head," which is sure to be given 



;-.: You r :■:'./ 

them, and they are not half as nice and attractive 
as the wideawake youngsters, who are busy all 
day and sleep " like tops " all night. 

The harder you work, the more you deserve 
and the more you need a good night's rest. 
Sleep will give your tired brain a chance to rest, 
and while you are thus lost to everything, your 
blood-boats can go on carrying material to your 
weary muscles and nerves, so that they too can 
make up for the loss of the day, and be strong 
and fresh when you again need them on the 
morrow. 

If you make the best use of all your Waking 
hours, you can surely get all the needful work 
done without robbing yourself of any sleep. Be- 
sides, that kind of a theft is sure to do you a 
great deal of harm. People who wont sleep, 
cant sleep after awhile, even when they wish 
to do so, and if one does not get sleep enough, 
one is sure to feel ill, and perhaps in time to 
become crazy. 

68. Tee Way to Study. 

I have seen children open their books to study, 
think one minute of their lesson, look around the 
next to see what mother is doing, then read a 
word or two, listen to what father is saying, 
stare out of the window, and only come back to 
the lesson every once in a while. 



The Way to Study 17$ 

It takes such youngsters a very long time to 
learn even the simplest thing, and then they only 
half know it. But, if they put all their minds on 
their lesson, thought of that, and that only, tried 
hard to understand just what it meant, and to fix 
it firmly in their minds, it would soon be packed 
away safely in the brain storehouse, and the 
memory servant would bring it out perfectly 
clear whenever the master chose to call for it. 
A few minutes of intent work is far better than 
hours of dawdling study. 

There was once a poor boy, named Elihu Bur- 
ritt. He had to earn his living by blowing the 
bellows for a cross blacksmith. This boy was 
very eager to learn and as he could not afford to 
buy books, — which were very costly in his day, 
— he borrowed all he could. 

As he had no time or place to sit down and 
read comfortably, he used to prop these books, 
wide open, on a beam just over his bellows. 
Every time he raised his hand to grasp the 
handle of the bellows, he read as many words 
as he could catch in that glance. Then he would 
think hard of these words, while hanging on to 
the bellows' handle, which had to be forced down 
by his weight. When he rose again, the lad 
read the next few words, and he went on so, 
until he had finished page after page, and book 
after book. 



i-6 Ycurself 

By making such good use of these few seconds 
between every pull of his bellows, this brave boy 
not only managed to educate himself well, but 
learned to read many different languages, and 
became one of the most learned men in the 
world. 

You see, he trained his eye to be quick and 
find the place where he left off reading, his 
memory to receive a thing which he had seen 
only once, and his mind to think hard about 
whatever he read. 

Most boys, placed as he was. would have de- 
clared that they had no time to study, for they 
had to work hard all cav ; but this one knew 
that a few minutes at a time, given every cay to 
any study, with the firm resolve to do one's best, 
are bound to bring about great results in the 
end. 

Do not wait, therefore, until you have plenty 
of time to begin anything. Begin now. Use 
all the little odds and ends of time you have, 
learn to do things in such a way as to save time. 
and before long you will hod out that you have 
leisure enough to do many things if you only 
choose to do them. 

69. The Senses. 

Man has five senses as they are called. These 
are the means by which he can see. hear, smell, 



The Sense 177 

taste and touch. Most of us have all these sen- 
ses complete, but a few poor children are deaf, 
or blind, or without any sense of smell or taste. 
Children who have not the use of all five senses 
miss a great deal of the good we have to enjoy, 
and we should, therefore, be very kind to them 
and try to help them in any way we can. 

You all know that we see by means of our 
eyes, which we have called until now the win- 
dows of our little houses. But eyes are much 
more than windows. I suppose most of you 
children have seen a camera, with which photo- 
graphs are taken. Well, our eyes are the finest 
and best cameras ever made. 

Every picture which passes in front of those 
windows, when the curtains (eyelids) are raised, 
is quickly photographed. The photograph serv- 
ant — who, we will make believe lives there — 
takes one snap-shot after another, and then his 
helpers stow all these photographs away in the 
brain storehouse, where the master can call for 
them whenever he pleases, and look them all 
over as often as he likes. 

If we look at pleasant people and beautiful 
things, we have many lovely pictures to stow 
away in our private picture gallery, but if we look 
at cross people and hateful things, we have pic- 
tures which can give us no pleasure to look over 
later on. 



r/8 Yourself 

These wonderful cameras of ours are very 
delicate. As we have only two of them, and 
cannot get new ones when these are out of order 
or worn out, we must take very good care of 
them. To take the best care of your eyes, you 
should always keep them clean, never rub or 
touch them with dirty fingers, and work or study 
only when the light is good and when you are 
not tired. 

If you read or sew when it grows dark, when 
the light is dim, when the sun is shining brightly 
on your book or work, or when you are tired, 
you are likely to strain your eyes. Never try to 
look hard at very bright objects — like the sun, — 
and do not strain your eyes or tire them in any 
way. 

If you cannot see well, you should have your 
eyes examined, and wear glasses, so that your 
eyes may be helped to do you as good service as 
they can for as long a time as possible. 

Baby's eyes need special care if you wish him 
to see well when he grows up. So be very care- 
ful not to let the sun shine right into them when 
he is in his carriage, and place the light where 
it cannot fall upon him when he is asleep. 

Besides that, you should keep baby's eyes 
clean, by washing them carefully every day. 
Eyes are so delicate that they must be bathed 
very, very gently, but plenty of water is good 



About Hearing 179 

for them at all times. If they feel tired, it is 
often good to give them an extra washing, with 
water as hot as you can bear it. 

One can also train one's eyes to see more or 
less quickly all that one wishes them to take in. 
Deaf mute children whom I know, can glance at 
pictures and take in every detail in a flash. 
They often surprise me because they see and 
think so well. Those children have learned to 
see what their friends say by watching their lips. 
You see they are making good use of their eyes I 
They learn to talk by imitating the motions of 
other people and feeling how they use the 
muscles of their throats. 

70. About Hearing. 

Blind children learn mostly by hearing and by 
touch. Their sense of touch is so very quick 
and so delicate, that they can read raised print as 
fast and as well as other children can read ordi- 
nary print. Some children, who are blind and 
deaf, like Helen Keller, for instance, are obliged 
to learn nearly everything by means of touch 
alone. 

This brave girl worked and worked, until at 
sixteen she knew enough to enter college, passing 
the same examinations as older girls, who could 
both see and hear, and getting high marks, too 1 
She is now in college, still working hard, and I 



180 Yourself 

am sure you will never hear of a braver or 
brighter girl, or one who deserves more praise 
for being always cheerful and hopeful in spite of 
her great trials. 

We, who have all our senses, ought not only 
to be very thankful, but to see that we make the 
very best use of them. They are given us to 
use, for good or evil just as we choose, but if we 
only make good use of them we know we will 
be a blessing to ourselves and to everybody else. 

Besides training our eyes to see good things, 
to like those best, and to dwell as little as 
possible on those which are really ugly or hateful, 
we can teach our ears to love beautiful sounds 
and to hear by preference all that is good. The 
ears you know, are the telephones of our little 
house. Any one can call up anything he pleases 
through an ear-telephone, which receives all kinds 
of messages. But, the master can heed these or 
not, just as he pleases, and a wise master listens 
only to what is good and right. 

Whenever anything wrong or unpleasant is be- 
ing said, he quickly sends a message down to the 
hands, bidding them close the openings to the 
ear-telephone, so that no more of the talk that 
he does not like shall come up into the station to 
be stowed away in his brain. 

I would advise all children to stop up their 
ears tight, in this way, whenever any one says 



How Alcohol Was Found 181 

anything which they feel is not right, and to run 
away, for they surely do not want their brain 
storehouse all filled up with memories of bad 
words, evil suggestions, naughty or unkind 
speeches or mean thoughts 1 

Our ears, like our eyes, are very delicate in- 
deed. They, too, need to be kept quite clean, 
by frequent and careful washings. Never poke 
anything into your ears, save the tip of your 
finger or a corner of your sponge, wash-cloth, or 
handkerchief, and be sure that nature will take 
care of any wax which you cannot reach in that 
way. 

Keep your ears clean, do not let a sharp 
draught blow into them, try not to let them get 
too cold, and if they ache, never use anything but 
hot water, hot cloths, or a few drops of sweet 
oil heated in a spoon and carefully dropped into 
the hole. If this does not cure your earache, 
it will be best for you to see a doctor, be- 
cause the ears and eyes are very delicate and 
precious and nobody can afford to neglect them. 
If you are too poor to pay a doctor, you know 
you can always go to the nearest hospital, where 
you will be taken care of, and where they will 
give you medicine and advice free of charge. 

71. How Alcohol was Found. 
You all like fairy tales, do you not > Well, 



1 82 Yourself 

nearly everybody has liked them at some time in 
his life, and in olden times many people believed 
that fairy tales were quite true. They thought, 
for instance, that somewhere in the world there 
was a wonderful fountain, and that if one could 
only drink of its waters and bathe in them, one 
would become young and strong, and remain so 
forever after. 

The belief in the " Fountain of Youth" was so 
great, that many men spent their lives seeking 
for it, and when they failed to find it in Europe, 
some of them even came over to America in the 
vain hope of discovering it here at last. 

Other men fancied that it was possible to find 
a Water of Life, or a medicine which would 
make an old man feel young again, and would 
prevent his ever dying. They began to mix and 
to boil all sorts of drugs and drinks, and finally 
one of them, by accident, found out the way to 
make brandy or distilled liquor. He tasted it 
and when his cheeks flushed, his body grew 
warm, and he felt like singing and dancing, he 
thought that he had surely found what he sought. 
He gave some of it to his friends, who also felt 
young and lively when they had drunk it, and 
all declared that the Water of Life was found S 

For many, many years people believed as he 
did, that those who drank of the Water of Life 
would live forever. But soon they found out 



How Alcohol Was Found 183 

their mistake, for the warmth and feeling of 
jollity lasted only a very short time, and they had 
to drink more and more of the liquor to feel any 
good effects from it. 

By and by, some of those who drank the 
Water of Life most often died, and then every 
one knew that the new discovery was a fraud I 
Still, many people liked the taste of it, enjoyed 
the feeling of warmth and merriment which it 
aroused, and thought that it did them much good. 
They said that although the liquor could not 
make one live forever, it gave new strength and 
spirits, and could cure all manner of dis- 
eases. 

This belief, — which has caused much sorrow, 
as you will see, — was all wrong, but it spread 
and spread, until almost everywhere men called 
for drinks containing more or less of the so called 
Water of Life, which, had it been rightly named, 
would have been called the Water of Death. 
The drink which caused the feelings I have de- 
scribed, was really harmful and it is the same 
which we now call alcohol. 

As the real Water of Life was very costly, 
some men soon found out ways of making cheap 
imitations, and other less costly drinks, which 
contained a small part of the same mixture, and 
therefore satisfied the taste of those who clamored 
for it. 



184 Yourself 

These drinks are now made and sold every- 
where, and although some time ago already peo- 
ple began to find out that they were very bad 
indeed for most human beings, they still are used 
everywhere and millions of dollars were spent 
for them in our country last year. 

Even doctors were long cheated by these drinks, 
which contained alcohol, for they noticed that the 
heart beat faster, the skin flushed, and that new 
strength and courage seemed to enter into the 
people to whom they gave it. Still, little by 
little they learned that while it seemed to do good 
for a few minutes, it really did well people a 
great deal of harm, and also injured the sick in 
many cases. 

They discovered that all drinks which contain 
any alcohol act just like a whip. You know 
that when you whip up a tired horse, he will 
make a new effort ; but whipping does not add 
one bit to his strength, and the new effort he 
mages only results in exhausting him sooner and 
more completely. 

72. The Yeast Plant. 

As I said before, it was a long, long time be- 
fore even the wisest doctors began to suspect 
that alcohol was mostly a cheat and generally 
harmful. Meantime, many other doctors, and 
countless men and women, praised it, sang about 



The Yeast Plant 185 

it, wrote poems upon it, and drank it freely 
whenever they chose. 

hi fact, some kind of liquor was always 
offered wherever you went, and you were con- 
sidered rude if you did not drink it. At mar- 
riages, christenings, burials, at church raisings, 
balls, and dinners, people drank, and there was a 
time when some even prided themselves upon the 
amount they could drink with out falling down 
under the table, dead drunk. 

While they, in their ignorance, were acting 
thus, other wise people were little by little find- 
ing out all they could about the evil effects of 
alcohol, and trying to show how wrong it is to 
ruin one's health by touching it in any form. 

After much study and many experiments, — for 
they really wanted to find that it was something 
else, and not alcohol which was at the root of all 
the harm — wise men discovered, as I tell you, 
that any drink which contains the least drop of 
alcohol is bad for human beings in general, and 
that, it is after all nothing but a cheat. 

They found out that when you squeeze grapes, 
or apples, or any other kind of fruit, you get 
some juice which contains more or less sugar, 
because most fruits are sweet. Clinging to the 
skin of the fruit thus squeezed, and floating 
around in the air we breathe, there are many, 
many little seeds of what is called the yeast plant. 



1 86 Yourself 

When these fall into the fruit juice, they begin to 
grow, and as they grow they change much of the 
sugar into alcohol. Then the juice bubbles and 
boils over the jug in which it is kept, just as if 
a fire which you cannot see, were made under it. 
Still, the fruit juice never gets really hot, al- 
though its taste and nature changes entirely. 

Because apples and grapes are good for people, 
many men will tell you that wine and cider can 
do no harm. But a very few hours after the 
juice has been squeezed out of these fruits, we 
know that the little yeast plant has begun its evil 
work, and that it is busy changing the sugar — the 
food part of fruit — into something quite different, 
which is not food at all, and which is realiy a 
kind of poison. 

Beer and ale are made from grain. The starch 
of the grain is first changed into sugar, then the 
yeast plant sets to work to make the sugar into 
alcohol. People will tell you that as beer and 
ale are made from grain, you have all the strength 
of the grain in liquid form. This is not true. 
By careful study and experiment, it has been 
found out that there is more real food and 
strength contained in the flour which you can 
hold on the point of your knife blade, than in 
eight quarts of the best beer that was ever 
made 1 

Although people found out that alcohol was 



Harmful Drinks 187 

harmful some time ago, only a few were willing 
to believe it, and even those few little suspected 
what very bad effects could come from using it, 
and that it was to be found in so many things. 

You will, no doubt, be greatly surprised when 
I tell you that there is a great deal of alcohol in 
every loaf of bread which is ready to be put into 
the oven. The alcohol gets into the bread by 
means of the yeast, which is put into it to make 
it light. 

When the bread is put into the oven, the 
alcohol gets very hot and all flies off in steam. 
In getting out of the bread, it makes some of the 
little holes which we can see, and which make 
good bread so light and spongy. All the alcohol 
in a loaf of bread has been turned to steam, and 
has gone out of it even before it is entirely 
baked, and as no taste of it is left in our bread, 
we can eat it without any fear of harm. 

73. Harmful Drinks. 

Some good women, who know how bad 
alcohol is for everybody, often make currant wine 
and root beer. Because they make it them- 
selves, and do not put any alcohol in it, they will 
tell you in all good faith : " You can drink that 
without fear. There is not a drop of alcohol in 
it. I made it myself, and I can answer for it that 
it is a harmless drink." 



188 Yourself 

The poor souls are, however, sorely mistaken. 
Unless they boiled the juice hard and bottled it 
up, right away, in air-tight bottles, they could not 
keep the yeast plant out of it, or prevent its 
growing and changing the sugar in their wine or 
beer into alcohol. 

Even when making preserves, and screwing 
them up into air-tight jars, you cannot quite be 
sure of shutting out all yeast plant seeds. That 
some do slip in at times, is proved by the fact that 
the fruit in our jars sometimes ferments, and that 
when you want to use it you often find it 
spoiled. 

There is alcohol in nearly every kind of drink, 
and wherever there is alcohol there is danger. 
Alcohol never does well people any good, and it 
does a great deal of harm to nearly every one 
who makes a habit of drinking it. 

The only drinks in which no alcohol, or other 
harmful things can be found, and which are really 
safe in every way, are pure water, milk and not 
too sweet lemonade. Surely those are enough 
to quench the thirst of any reasonable boy or 
girl. There are many other drinks which are 
only a little hurtful, so little that it hardly matters, 
but brandy, whisky, rum, gin, ginger-ale, ale, 
beer, root beer, and all kinds of wines and 
liquors are sure to contain more or less alcohol, 
even if those who sell them neither know — nor 



The Harm Alcohol Does 189 

wish you to know, — how much of that stuff is to 
be found m them. 

74. The Harm Alcohol Does. 

Some of you may wonder what harm alcohol 
does, so I will try to explain so that you will be 
sure to understand. 

A man was once wounded in such a way that 
he had a hole in his body, through which the 
doctors could look right into his stomach and 
find out just what was going on inside there. 
They saw that every time this man drank any- 
thing containing alcohol, his stomach got very 
red and sore looking, and stayed so a long time. 

You see, alcohol is a drink, so strong, that it 
burns and stings the delicate skin of the mouth, 
the food tube, and the stomach. 

Alcohol itself does not stay in the stomach 
long, but is soon sucked up by the little tubes, 
and carried off to the liver. The Liver Dwarf 
hates it, because it makes all his tubes red and 
sore, and after a while it hardens them so they 
can do no more good work. 

As the liver cannot do anything with alcohol, 
it has to pass on into the blood. When it gets to 
the heart, the Pumping Dwarfs — who also hate 
alcohol — pull their ropes quicker and quicker to 
get rid of the blood-boats loaded with it. 

The blood then rushes to all parts of the body, 



190 Yourself 

where alcohol makes all the tubes red and sore, 
but where it does no good at all. When the 
blood-boats reach the little canals near the sur- 
face, the red shows right through the skin of the 
person who has been drinking, who therefore 
looks very flushed. 

When the little blood-boats, laden with alco- 
hol, reach the brain, the worst mischief begins. 
As the brain is the most delicate part of the 
body, it suffers most when the blood, which is 
sent to feed it, does not contain the right kind 
of food, or brings anything which can hurt it. 

Alcohol is so strong and so biting, that when it 
reaches the brain, it makes the reason servant dead 
drunk, and he does not try any longer to restrain 
the laughing servant, the crying servant, or the 
talking servant, all of whom begin acting just as 
they please. 

I am afraid that all of you, at some time, have 
seen drunken men. Well, you know that at first 
they are very jolly, talk, and laugh aloud, and act 
very foolishly. But by and by — when the blood- 
boats have brought still more alcohol into the 
poor delicate brain, — the servant who sends out 
all the messages about walking, standing and 
moving is also overcome by the alcohol. It is 
then a man begins to stagger and wobble, and 
finally falls down in a heap, dead drunk. 

When the blood-boats bring enough alcohol to 



Why People Drink 191 

stun nearly all the servants up in the brain, and 
to put the master himself sound asleep, the body 
lies like a log. The drunken man breathes 
heavily, and stays in a stupor, until his skin, lungs 
and kidneys, can manage to drive enough alcohol 
out of the body, so that his servants can little by 
little recover their senses, and set to work 
again. 

But the servants are all very cross after alcohol 
has thus made them stupid and sleepy. They 
move slowly and uncertainly, and feel so sick 
and so tired that they do their work very badly 
indeed. In fact, alcohol stays a long time in the 
body, making mischief. It has even been found 
that it takes from three to six days to get quite 
rid of the alcohol in one bottle of beer only, and 
still beer contains only a little that is harmful 
compared to many other drinks. 

75. Why People Drink. 

As you have already seen, drink does harm to 
all the parts of the body, but you have as yet 
heard of only a small part of the damage it really 
does. 

It is said that one glass of liquor will cause up 
to eight thousand extra heart beats. Of course, 
so much extra work must make the Pumping 
Dwarfs tired and sore, especially as they dislike 
alcohol very much, indeed, anyway. 



192 Yourself 

If the heart beats eight thousand times more 
than usual for one glass of liquor, just imagine 
how many times extra the poor thing has to 
thump when many drinks are taken each and 
every day. No wonder that life insurance com- 
panies count that a man of twenty, who drinks, 
will not live much longer than thirty-five, while a 
man of twenty, who does not drink, will live to 
be sixty-five at least. 

As drunken men do not know what they are 
doing, they often give away all they have, or 
allow others to steal it ; thus they ruin their 
families as well as their own health. Besides, a 
man who drinks, soon passes from the talkative, 
jolly stage of feeling, into a state of blind fury 
with everybody and everything. In this state, 
men — who when they were sober, were kind and 
good — have become like wild animals, and have 
committed awful crimes. 

Such are the bad effects of drink, that those 
who know, will tell you that seven-tenths of all 
the poverty and crime in the United States is 
due to alcohol. Still, in spite of this, and of the 
fact that they know it hurts them, many men will 
go on drinking. Some drink because they like 
the taste of the liquor, some because they are 
weak-minded, and cannot resist when any one 
makes fun of them for being afraid of it, and 
some because by drinking they have become the 



Why People Drink 193 

victims of the drink disease, and cannot stop 
themselves any more. 

> Those who just like the taste of alcohol, or 
who drink it merely because they wish to do as 
their friends do, are self-indulgent, weak-minded 
fools. They are probably men, — or women alas, 
— who, when young children, were either in- 
dulged or neglected, and who never did anything 
except what they liked, and because it pleased or 
suited them to do it. 

They have no real idea of duty or self-control, 
and they are without character. When they 
were young, every time a message came up to 
the telegraph servant, their answer always was : 
" Do that because it pleases me." The result 
was that the selfish, self-indulgent storehouse had 
many new cells stowed away in it every day. 
After a while, the servant said : " Oh, my mas- 
ter thinks of himself only, and always does as he 
likes best, regardless of the feelings or rights of 
others. It is no use even to ask what he wants 
me to do. I know it already." Then the serv- 
ant sent out new messages, ordering the taste to 
please itself, and thus more cells were added to 
the self-indulgent storehouse. 

If the master drinks because he is a coward, 
and dares not say " no," even when he knows it 
would be right to do so, new cells are daily 
added to the storehouse where all the cowardly 



194 Yourself 

deeds are bottled up, and the man sinks lower 
and lower in everybody's esteem. 

Such drinkers can stop drinking any minute the 
master in their little houses really makes up their 
minds not to do it any more. But their servants 
have so thoroughly learned very bad habits, that 
they will have to watch them very closely if they 
wish to reform. Every time a message comes : 
" Here is a glass of liquor, what is to be done with 
it?" these servants, — unless the master interferes 
quickly and decidedly — will answer back: 
11 Drink it, of course. That is what master al- 
ways orders. There are any number of cells 
here saying ' Drink ' and hardly any at all say- 
ing * Don't drink.' " 

You see, do you not, how very watchful such 
a master has to be to prevent his servants acting 
in the usual way before he can stop them. But, 
after he has stopped them many, many times, and 
when the " Don't drink "cells get to be more 
and more numerous in his brain storehouse, the 
servant is no longer in such a hurry to answer : 
" Master always pleases his taste," or " Master is 
afraid to say no," and says instead: "Just wait 
a minute, and I'll find out what master wishes this 
time. There are so many cells up here which 
say * Drink ' and so many which say * Don't 
drink ' that I am quite bewildered, and don't 
know any more what to do." 



Why You Should Not Drink 19$ 

Thus, any person can get rid of a bad habit. 
But it is far, far easier never to get into bad 
habits at all. If a house master, from the very 
first, always directs his servants never to touch 
drink because it is bad for the body, there will 
be no " drink cells " at all in his brain storehouse, 
and after a while his servants will answer all such 
messages themselves saying: "Oh I take that 
stuff away, for master knows far better than ever 
to drink a drop of it." 

76. Why You Should not Drink. 

Some men have brains built in such a way that 
the very least little drop of alcohol is not only 
bad for them, but may start a terrible disease. 
Sometimes their brains can more easily take this 
awful disease because their father or mother, or 
even their grandfather or grandmother, used to 
drink. 

You all know that you have mouths, eyes, 
noses, hair or some other feature like your father 
or mother. Well, just as some parts of the out- 
side of your body are exact copies of the same 
parts of one of your parents, some of the inside 
parts of your body are like theirs too. 

A man who drinks, and who has "drink cells" 
in his brain storehouse, is most likely to have 
children, whose storehouses seem just aching to 
get full of " drink cells" too. If such children 



::: ;';:.. -5:'./ 

drink once, because they " want to know what it 
tastes like," or because " one little drink cannot 
do me any harm," they begin storing away 

•• drink cells " and s: perhaps give that bad dis- 
ease the very chance it was seeking :; start and 
grow and take such a strong hold upon them that 
it will never let them go again. 

Children whose parents drink, therefore, should 
be very, very careful never to touch any kind of 
liquor, however mild. To strengthen then- 
brains they should eat wholesome food, breathe 
fresh air, take plenty of exercise, keep dean, and 
train their bodies and minds in every way to do 
ordy thai which is right and n:bie. I: they be- 
gin early, if they try very hard, and if they never 
give in, or never give up trying to get into good 
habits, such children wffl make the finest and best 
men and women in our country ; men and women 
whom every one will respect, and whom all will 
admire and try :: imitate. They will deserve 
much m:re credit :":: being zzzz, and never 
vield:r.g t: the temptaticn tc drink, than any :i 
the necrle whc never have tc struggle against 
such a temptaticn. 

There are many pecple whc laugh and ;cke 
when they see a man stagger aic.rg uncer the in- 
fluence c: drink. :r talk arc act t'cciishiy. Then 
there are some who make others drunk just to 
see what they will say cr d:. The pecple who 



Why You Should Not Drink 197 

laugh are thoughtless, or heartless, and those 
who make others do wrong for fun are wicked. 
Nqw, it is not right to be even thoughtless, for 
every one should feel it a duty to help and en- 
courage his neighbor to do only that which is 
right and good. 

There are some very good people who think 
that all drunkards are equally vile. These people 
evidently do not know, or they will not believe, 
that while some drinkers are only weak and evil- 
minded others are really very ill with a disease, 
which when once it has taken hold of them, they 
can no longer resist. 

Doctors, who know about the drink disease, de- 
spise the men who drink merely because the liquor 
tastes good, but pity the poor men who drink 
because they are victims of this awful sickness. 
Most diseases can be cured, however, if rightly 
treated and in time, and many a drunkard could 
be saved, if his family and friends only knew 
what to do, and were willing to do it with all 
their might. 

If you ever wish to help cure a person with 
the^drink disease, you should see that he is kept 
warm and comfortable, that he has plenty of 
sleep and exercise, fresh air in abundance, a 
really clean skin, plain food nicely cooked, and 
that his thoughts are made to dwell on good 
things only, as much as possible. 



198 Yourself 

Such a man needs to be watched as closely as 
a crazy man, so that he does not harm himself by 
drinking. Just as crazy men often have to be 
shut up in asylums for the insane, these drunken 
men often have to be locked up in asylums, 
where they take care of people suffering from 
the drink disease, and try to cure them of their 
terrible trouble. 

yy. Stronger Without Than With Liquor. 

It is because drink does such fearful harm to 
many people, that there are laws in our country 
saying when, where and how liquor can be sold. 
In some places, where the voters have at last 
realized the harm that liquor can do, there are 
also laws forbidding the sale of all drinks in 
which alcohol can be found. When you get old 
enough to vote, or to influence those who do vote, 
perhaps you will try to stop the sale of liquor, as 
much as you can, so that the terrible drink 
disease shall spread no further, and our country 
go to pieces as all the countries have done in 
turn where wrong-doing was not stopped for 
good and all. 

When few or no drunkards will be left on the 
globe, much of the unhappiness will be ended, 
there will be far less crime, and much less sick- 
ness. Doctors tell us that seven out of every 
ten sick people in the city hospitals are ill, only 



Stronger Without Than With Liquor 199 

because they or their parents drank, or because 
they were hurt by people who were drunk. 
There is in one part of New York City, a saloon 
for every fifty-eight persons, and a school for 
every sixty-six thousand. Do you think that can 
be good for the people or for the city? If you 
could vote would you not vote to have that 
changed ? 

Until now, in speaking of drink we have talked 
about drunkards only. But there are ever and 
ever so many men and women, who never were 
drunk in their lives, who only drink a very little, and 
who do not know or believe that even a little alco- 
hol, in any form, can do them or their children 
any harm. Some say : " You see I am far from 
strong, so I have to take a little wine or beer to 
give me strength." 

If they only knew it, the wine or beer does 
not give them any strength at all. Of course, 
there was a time when everybody thought it did, 
but now a few people know better. There are 
clever machines which measure people's strength. 
Men who said they drank because liquor made 
them stronger, have been tested by these ma- 
chines. They were tried when they had not 
taken a drop of any kind of liquor for many, 
many days, and when they themselves said that 
they had no strength at all. Then they were 
tried again when they had taken some liquor, and 



;:•: 



Yourself 



said they felt much stronger and were sure they 
could do much better. 

Strange to relate, the machines proved flint 
they were really much stronger when they had 
not drunk and felt weak, than when they had 
drunk and felt strong. It is in this way tint 
doctors have proved that drink is a cheat, and 
that it does not gixe well people the strength 
that so many of them suppose. 

Another proof that liquor does not give 
strength is the fact that college-teams are newer 
allowed to touch a single drop of it, while the 
men are training for their great matches. Don't 
yon suppose the trainers would make then drink 
if there was any chance that alcohol would intake 
them stronger? 

During the Spanish-American war our sailors 
were not allowed to have any liquor whe 
to fight, while the Spaniards received then- 
allowance. The result was that our men won 
victory after victory, lost no ships and very few 
lives, while the Spaniards were beaten, lost all 
their ships, and ever so many of their men. 



78. About 



Some men say that they 
warm, especially when they 
cold. They are sorely 
drink will make or keep 



going out in Ac 



About Temperance 201 

will only drive more hot blood near their skin, 
where they can feel it, but where the cold air 
will strike and cool it off sooner. Then it will 
go back to the heart much cooler than it was 
before. 

In Russia, where it is very cold, we are told 
that the officers, who have to go out with the 
troops, smell the breath of every man before they 
start. Any man whose breath shows that he has 
been drinking, is sent right back to camp or to 
the barracks, for the officers know that he will 
be the first to be overcome by the cold, and the 
most likely to be frost-bitten or frozen to death. 

When explorers go far north, or south, on jour- 
neys of discovery, trying to reach the north or 
south pole, they no longer drink themselves, or 
allow their men to drink, because they have 
found that the only way to keep the body warm 
enough is not to drink liquor of any kind. 

Some engineers were surveying in South 
America, and climbed a very high mountain. 
They reached a place where the snow never 
melts, even in the hottest summers, for the higher 
you go the colder it gets. 

These engineers had to spend the night up 
there, amid snow and ice. Some of them drank 
a great deal of liquor u to keep warm," others 
drank a little " to take the chill off," but a few 
of the men were wise enough not to drink at all. 



202 Yourself 

When morning came, those who drank a great 
deal were dead — frozen stiff, — those who drank 
a little, had badly frost-bitten hands and feet ; 
while those who had not touched liquor at all were 
alive and well, ready to bury or nurse the others. 

In hot countries it is equally dangerous to 
drink, and during the many wars in Africa, the 
generals who have been most successful are those 
who neither drank themselves nor allowed their 
men to drink. In fact it is now clearly shown 
that well people do not need liquor at any time, 
because it cannot really help them in any way. 
On the contrary it always does them some harm, 
although many of them do not realize that the 
troubles they have often come from drink only. 

Still, as long as people want liquor of any kind, 
it will be made and sold. Because liquor does 
harm and causes much sin and unhappiness many 
of the temperance people say that all those who 
make and sell it are very wicked men. This is 
not quite true. 

Many makers and sellers of liquor never touch 
it themselves, and teach their children to leave it 
alone ; but they say that as long as people will 
have it, it is far better that they should make and 
sell it, because they at least will give the people 
the best liquor that can be made. 

Many of these men did not know when they 
were boys that liquor could do any harm unless 




B. Plockhcrst. 



A GIFT FROM HEAVEN. 



The Use of Alcohol 203 

too much of it was taken. But if you drink 
too much water or too much milk, you can harm 
your health too, for temperance really means just 
enough of anything and no more. 

A man, who when a boy, always heard that there 
was no harm at all in dealing in liquor, or even 
drinking a little of it, has this idea so deeply 
rooted in his brain, that it is not likely any one 
can ever change it. 

Many of us think that if most of the men who 
make liquor, who sell it, and who drink it, had 
only been told, when boys, just what it is and 
what harm it can do, that they would never have 
touched it at all, and would certainly have chosen 
another way of making their living. 

You boys, who read such books as this, and 
who are taught in school while you are young, 
all the harm that alcohol can do, will, therefore, 
be greatly to blame, if, when you grow up and 
can do as you please, you ever drink, or help to 
make or to sell any of the drinks which have 
caused so much sin, sorrow and shame in this 
world. 

79. The Use of Alcohol. 

You have already heard all the bad about alco- 
hol that I care to tell you* Now I am going to 
tell you some good about it, and there is really a 
great deal of good to say. It is not the fault of 



204 Y cut self 

poor alcohol itself, If some men have made and 
still make bad use of it. 

Alcohol is just splendid to burn. It makes a 
nice clear flame without any smoke at all. If 
you put it in a lamp, and hang a small kettle over 
the flame, you can have boiling water in a very 
short time, and the bottom of your kettle will be 
quite clean when you are through using it. 

When you have sick people in the house, or 
when you want to heat baby's food at night, an 
alcohol lamp is often very convenient. Besides, 
dentists, jewelers, and many other skilled work- 
men are very glad indeed to use alcohol lamps for 
much of their fine work. 

If you put any dead animal, or a piece of 
flesh in alcohol, it will keep any length of time 
without spoiling. Doctors and scientists have 
all sorts of things carefully pickled in jars full of 
alcohol. In museums you can see many strange 
fishes, for instance, which look just as they did 
when first caught, although many years may have 
passed since they were put into those very 
jars. 

Alcohol is used for many other useful things, 
especially in chemistry. Many of the pretty 
colors in which our clothes and ribbons are dyed 
could not have been made without alcohol. It 
is also used in mixing many kinds of medicines, 
and that is the main reason why you should never 



The Use of Alcohol 20$ 

take any drugs save when the doctor tells you to 
do so. 

Doctors know that alcohol can be used — just 
like arsenic and many other poisons — as medicine 
for certain diseases. They know all about the 
body and what it needs. They also know that 
there are times when the heart, for instance, 
beats too slowly, and when the extra beats which 
alcohol would cause, would do it good. At those 
times, when they are quite sure that the harm 
which alcohol does elsewhere cannot overbalance 
the good it may do to the heart, they order it for 
their patients. 

When the doctor gives you some very horrid 
tasting medicine, you are never one bit anxious 
to take more doses than he tells you, and you 
often beg him to give you something else. But, 
when he gives .you medicine which you learn to 
like, you not only fail to ask him to change it, 
but often go on taking it after he has told you it 
is not longer necessary to do so. 

That is the great danger about alcohol when 
used as a medicine. People get to like it, and 
then they take more of it than the doctor wishes. 
Besides, when they find out that it may do good 
in certain cases of heart or stomach trouble, they 
often fancy it must do good in all, and, like the 
people of old, act as if they believed it a cure for 
all diseases. 



206 Yourself 

A doctor who knows all about tbe human body, 
will give alcohol (in some form) to one person, 
and none at all to the next, although the two 
may really have the same disease. He knows it 
will help one person to get well, but that it may 
make another very sick, and he alone can judge 
who should take it and how much they should take. 

Alcohol is not the only medicine which is 
really harmful, that people like to take. Some 
learn to like opium, or morphine, or chloral, or 
some other drug, in which these poisons are 
mixed. Soon they cannot get along without it, 
take more and more, and finally they become 
very ill, or even crazy from the effects of these 
drugs. 

It is because some of these poisons are so 
often found in patent medicines, that it is not at all 
safe to take them. There is poison in all the 
headache medicines and also in the soothing 
syrups. Never y never give your baby anything 
of the kind, for if you do not kill him outright, 
you may ruin his health, or his mind. In fact, 
the only safe rule is never to give or take any 
medicine that your doctor does not order, and to 
be sure and take only just as much of it as he 
tells you. 

80. About Drinking. 
You have already been told that the only per- 



About Drinking 207 

fectly safe drinks are pure water, milk and slightly 
sweetened lemonade. There are, however, many 
others, which, if properly made, and if not taken 
too often, can do no great harm to any one. 
Cocoa and chocolate can feed as well as warm 
you, so they can be given even to little children, 
although there is a little poison in both. 

Tea and coffee, freshly made, not too strong, 
and taken only at meal times, in reasonable 
quantities, do not hurt most grown people. But, 
like alcohol, tea and coffee are only cheats, for 
they make you think for a little while that you 
are stronger and livelier than you really are. 

Besides, they are very apt to make children 
fidgety, to keep them awake when they should 
be asleep, to spoil their appetites more or less, to 
make them cross and disagreeable and to hinder 
their growth. So, children, leave tea and coffee 
entirely alone until you are twenty, and then it 
is not likely you will care to begin drinking them 
any more. I know some grown people who are 
very sorry because they have drunk coffee and 
tea all their lives, but I have never yet heard of 
any one who was sorry because he or she never 
drank either at all. 

Your parents, who have taken tea and coffee 
ever since they were children, may think you 
foolish and cranky if you refuse to drink what 
they do, but you surely won't mind being teased 



208 Yourself 

a little, or even laughed at, if it Is going to do 
you good and not harm in the end. If you must 
have something warm, drink hot water or hot 
milk. 

Boys and girls, practice self-denial and do not 
drink much soda water either. Remember that 
soda water is very bad for growing bones and 
teeth as well as for your stomach. Besides, by 
taking it, you get into the habit of drinking, and 
if you must have soda when you are young, you 
will probably think you must have much stronger 
drinks when you are older. Those who " can- 
not resist" a glass of soda now, will not be able 
to " resist" taking a glass of some stronger drink 
later on. 

If you teach yourself now to do without any- 
thing but milk and water, you will never regret 
it. About two thousand five hundred years ago 
a very wise man (Socrates) said : " Beware of 
those liquors which tempt you to drink when you 
are not thirsty, and of those foods which tempt 
you to eat when you are not hungry." 

We have lived many hundreds of years since 
then, yet these words have never been found 
anything but true, and no one can give you wiser 
directions than those about what you should eat 
and drink. 

The same wise man also said : " He who 
knows what is good and chooses it, who knows 



About Tobacco 209 

what is bad and avoids it, is learned and temper- 
ate." Now you can learn if you choose, what is 
good or bad for you, and any one who chooses the 
bad, after he knows that it is bad, fully deserves 
the punishment which is sure to overtake him 
sooner or later. 

I would advise every girl who reads this book 
not only to be very careful about her own food 
and drink at all times, but when she grows up 
never to marry any man who is too self-indulgent 
in this matter. If she does, she may find herself 
with a drunken husband, sickly children, ruined 
health and leading a most unhappy life. 

When it is thoroughly understood that no good 
woman will ever marry a man who drinks even a 
little, the men who expect to marry some day, 
and have homes and children of their own, will 
realize that they must keep away from temptation. 
So you see, girls, even if you cannot vote or 
change the laws, you can help to bring about a 
better state of things. Are you willing to do it ? 

81. About Tobacco. 

Until Christopher Columbus discovered Amer- 
ica, and Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first to- 
bacco to Europe, white men managed to live and 
be very happy without smoking at all. In fact, 
it was only about five hundred years ago that 
civilized men began to adopt what was probably 



210 Yourself 

one of the very worst of the savage customs, a 
custom which is doubly bad because it looks so 
very innocent. 

At first, no one knew that tobacco — like drink 
— is only a cheat and a poison. Of course, 
tobacco always made men sick the first time they 
tried it, but as they believed it was quite harm- 
less otherwise, they went on trying, until they 
learned to like it so well that they fancied they 
really could not get along without it. 

The taste for tobacco, little by little, became 
so general that there are now more men who use 
it than men who do not, and so much money is 
spent every year for " the weed " as it is rightly 
called, that if that amount were set aside for four 
years only, it is estimated we could pay off our 
immense national debt (in 1902, #1,337,282, 142). 

You see what huge sums of money go up in 
smoke every year, for even men whose families 
have to be supported by charity always have 
money to burn in this way. 

Even doctors who smoke themselves, will tell 
you that tobacco is a poison, that it is bad for the 
teeth, bad for the throat, bad for the lungs, bad 
for the stomach, bad for the heart, bad for the 
skin, and bad for the brain. Besides, they will 
tell you that, unlike alcohol, tobacco has no good 
side at all, save that it is useful in gardens and 
greenhouses to kill bugs and other vermin. 



About Tobacco 211 

Of course, men who only smoke a little, and 
who use tobacco which is clean and not too 
strong, do not suffer enough from its bad effects 
to notice them greatly. But even when they do, 
they like tobacco so much, that they are not will- 
ing to admit that it can have any share in making 
them ill, or to give up using it. 

Many doctors got into the habit of smoking 
before they knew of all the harm that tobacco 
can do. Others began using it when they were 
medical students, simply because they had to 
work many hours a day over things which 
smelled so very bad that it was a great relief to 
have a strong odor always under their noses to 
deaden the rest. 

These doctors will tell you that by the time they 
were through their disagreeable work, the habit 
of smoking had become so deeply rooted, that 
they no longer wished to give it up. Still, they 
cannot but add, that they and every one else 
would be much better off, if they never smoked 
at all. They also say that it is estimated that a 
young man who learns to smoke or chew, wil- 
fully destroys one fifth of the enjoyment and 
value of his life and one tenth of its length. 

Although men can become insane as the result 
of too much smoking or chewing, tobacco does 
not have such plainly seen bad effect as alcohol, so 
it is never considered half as bad to smoke as to 



212 Yourself 

drink. In fact, any number of very good men 
use tobacco every day. But they certainly would 
never have gotten into the habit of doing so, if 
they had learned in time what harm it could work 
them and others, for really good men are never 
wilfully selfish. 

After a man — even a very good one — has once 
learned to smoke or chew, it becomes an almost 
hopeless task to convince him that he is doing 
wrong, or make him give it up. You see, there 
are too many brain cells stowed away in his self- 
indulgent storehouse, all full of excuses for do- 
ing as he wishes. 

This book is not written with any hope of 
changing grown-ups, whose habits are already 
fixed. It is merely intended to save yon boys 
and girls from forming bad habits, and to show 
you plainly how foolish it is to ruin one's own 
life for the sake of pleasing a taste which you 
have not yet learned, and which you would have 
to cultivate. 

If you see grown up persons who want to give 
up drinking or smoking, help and encourage 
them as much as you can, but do not bother them 
or preach to them. Your business is to look 
after yourselves and your own companions. 
You are warned against the bad habits which you 
might adopt, and if, after that, you go ahead and 
form them, you will be much more blameworthy 



The Harm Tobacco Can Do 213 

than the older people, whom perhaps you now 
secretly despise for being so self-indulgent and 
so foolish, to say the least. 

•v 

82. The Harm Tobacco Can do. 

We have said that no one can deny that much 
tobacco must harm the person who uses it and 
that most moderate smokers, when asked to give 
their honest opinion, will confess that it is much 
wiser not to smoke or chew at all. 

Men declare that they smoke because it 
soothes them, because it rests them, because it 
helps their digestion, because it makes them 
think better or quicker, because they are lonely 
and because it keeps them company, because 
they have nothing else to do, and because others 
smoke, and it is more sociable to do as others 
do. 

All these reasons, to a person who has stored 
no " tobacco cells" away in his brain, seem very 
childish and foolish and really good for nothing. 
Some doctors who liked to smoke, and wished 
therefore to prove that there is some truth in 
these reasons, have been obliged to own up 
frankly that they cannot do so. They even say 
that a great deal of their practice is due to the 
harm which tobacco does to the body. 

As our bodies were given us in trust, we have 
no right to harm them in any way. We have no 



214 Yourself 

right either to injure our minds or our characters, 
and still it is pretty generally agreed that the use 
of tobacco does both. A good man who smokes 
and chews, would be a far better man if he did 
neither, and you have surely never yet heard of 
any one so good that he or she could afford not 
to try to be a little better. 

Besides a man who smokes or chews cannot give 
his children as strong nerves as if he did neither, 
and every man ought to think of his children's 
welfare. 

General Grant and Emperor Frederick of Ger- 
many, who were both great and good men, 
nevertheless smoked so much that it gave them 
cancer of the throat from which they died. It is 
also said that President McKinley might perhaps 
have recovered from his wound if he had not had 
a " smoker's heart," for smoking wears the heart 
out by making it beat faster than it should. 

Now, Grant, McKinley and Frederick were 
unusually strong men, and if tobacco can do so 
much harm to strong men, you can imagine what 
havoc it plays with those who are not strong. A 
doctor counted the heart-beats of a smoker, and 
found that after eleven minutes smoking, it beat 
thirty-eight beats a minute more 1 Doctors also 
tell us that tobacco makes many men crazy or 
that it brings about attacks of paralysis. 

It is said that the most moderate smoker 



How Tobacco Acts on Boys 21$ 

spends forty dollars a year for tobacco. Now, 
if these forty dollars were laid aside every year, 
from the time he was twenty until he was sixty, 
this man could buy a nice little home to live in 
during his old age. 

A man who kept exact accounts, died in 
Vienna recently. He had smoked 628,71 3 cigars 
in forty-six years. You can count for yourselves 
how much money this man burned, even if he 
smoked the very cheapest kind of cigars — those 
made in a dirty way from cigar ends picked up 
in the gutter I 

83. How Tobacco Acts on Boys 

It has been proved that bad as tobacco is for 
men, it is much worse for boys who have not yet 
reached their full growth. It dwarfs and stunts 
them body and mind, and injures their characters 
as well. 

A doctor once examined thirty-eight boys un- 
der fifteen who were known to smoke. He 
found that although these boys had been quite 
healthy before they began to use tobacco, 
twenty-seven of them had already gotten diseases 
which no doctor could ever entirely cure. Some 
of them had the seeds of diseases which would 
make them unhappy and useless all their lives. 

The remaining eleven boys were stupid and 
lazy, and complained of headache and sore eyes, 



216 Yourself 

although they were not yet really sick. Still, 
some of them felt even worse than the boys who 
had diseases which would soon send them to 
their graves. Now just think whether it paid to 
smoke ? Here were thirty-eight boys who could 
have been good men and useful citizens, but they 
threw away all their chances for the sake of 
pleasing their vanity and their taste for tobacco. 

It is so well proved that tobacco is bad for the 
health, that no athlete is ever allowed to use it, 
in any form, while in training. Besides, in Swit- 
zerland there are laws forbidding the sale of to- 
bacco to boys under fifteen, and if one is caught 
using the weed he is arrested and punished. 

In Germany — the land of smokers — the law 
forbids the use of tobacco to all youths under 
sixteen. Smoking is not allowed at West Point, 
at Annapolis or in the State Military School in 
Paris, for the American and French governments 
have found out that a student who smokes is not 
nearly as bright as when he does not smoke, and 
that he is not likely to do so well in his profes- 
sion. 

While only some of the good men smoke, all 
the bad ones do, so Horace Greeley used to say : 
" Show me a genuine blackguard who is not fond 
of tobacco in some way, and I will show you two 
white blackbirds ! " 

Every year, ten pounds of chewing tobacco, 



Girls and Tobacco 217 

three and a half pounds of smoking, and a half 
pound of snuff are made in the United States for 
every male person, and six hundred million cig- 
arettes are sold to supply the wants of six million 
youths 1 All this tobacco has to be grown, 
manufactured and sold, so many people are em- 
ployed. But if the people thus employed had 
known the harm that tobacco can do, I feel very 
sure that few of them would care to have any- 
thing to do with it. They would surely rather 
grow, manufacture and sell something else. 

Because liquor and tobacco can do harm, the 
people who make and sell these things, are often 
looked down upon by others. We now know that 
those who are doing it may be excusable, but if 
their children do not see other and better ways 
of making money, when old enough to choose 
for themselves, they will deserve all the contempt 
which they are likely to meet some years hence, 
when everybody will have become fully aware of 
the ruin which tobacco as well as drink can 
bring about. 

84. Girls and Tobacco. 

If all the girls in our country banded together 
and refused to have anything to do with the boys 
who smoked, they would soon bring about a 
great change. They would, in the same time, 
benefit themselves greatly, for later on, when 



218 Yourself 

they grow up and want to marry, they will be 
very glad indeed to have husbands who do not 
selfishly burn money which might do good to 
their family or to the poor. Besides, their own 
health will be far better if they don't have to 
breathe air spoiled by tobacco smoke. Their 
children will be stronger and less likely to die in 
babyhood, and all their home life will be purer 
and happier. 

Girls, is not that worth trying for, even now > 
You will be teased and laughed at, but you are 
surely brave enough to stand a little of that. 
Just give the boys to understand, once for all, 
that while you are not such little prigs as to find 
fault with anything your fathers or uncles may 
choose to do, you are going to have your say 
about what your companions do, and that you 
certainly never mean to marry a man too weak- 
minded and self-indulgent to do what is proved 
to be right and to avoid forming bad habits. 

A girl, even in fun, or out of daring, should 
never touch a cigar or cigarette. You may be 
told that fine ladies do it, but nice ladies do not. 
Noble women shrink from the mere thought of 
such a thing. A woman who knows what harm 
smoking can do to the health, and who neverthe- 
less smokes, is a woman of no character or 
principle. 

As much as you can keep out of smoky air, for 



About Chewing 219 

every whiff of it is bad for your health. Girls 
brought up in homes where the air is blue with 
smoke, can never be quite as healthful and strong 
as they would have been had the air they breathed 
night and day always been quite pure. They 
are also more likely to have sickly children who 
will feel the bad effects from it, as I will explain 
to you later on. 

That every inch of a tobacco user's body is 
tainted by the poison, is proved by the fact that 
cannibals, — who like to eat what they call " long 
pig" — refuse to touch the flesh of any person 
who has smoked a great deal. If we lived among 
cannibals, it might pay to smoke so as not to be 
eaten, but as it is, there is really no excuse what- 
ever for a new generation growing up to make 
the same awful mistake as their fathers and grand- 
fathers. 

85. About Chewing. 

A man or boy who chews tobacco, suffers 
often even more from its evil effects than a 
smoker. Do you want to know why } It is be- 
cause a smoker draws in only a little of the poison 
from his pipe, cigar or cigarette, and blows out the 
rest to poison others, while a chewer swallows a 
great deal of it without meaning to do so. 

If he swallowed all the spittle flavored with 
tobacco, which he has in his mouth all the time, 



220 Yourself 

it would soon make him very ill and even kill 
him. To avoid being sick at his stomach, a to- 
bacco chewer spits all the time. This is a filthy, 
disgusting habit, ana as I have already explained 
to you the danger to others of spitting in any- 
thing but your handkerchief, or spittoon, you 
can understand why almost everybody now ob- 
jects to that mode of using tobacco. Still, while 
little cisease germs may rise from the dried 
spittle and do much mischief, a man who chews 
tobacco does not spoil all the air around him as a 
smoker does, and is hence less offensive to many 
people. 

Some school children are very fond of chewing- 
gum. They like it because it is nicely flavored 
with peppermint or vanilla, and because as long 
as they keep it in their mouths, that good taste 
tickles their palate. If the chewing-gum is well 
mace, there is no poison whatever in it. so you 
might therefore think that it can do no harm at 
all to those who chew it. 

But you are greatly mistaken. Chewing-gum 
is really very bad for everybody. You remember, 
do you not, what I told you about the spittle 
buckets in your little house 1- Well, as long as 
your jaws move, and as long as there is some- 
thing in vour mouth, those spittle buckets work 
hard to moisten it. 

All this spittle is swallowed again and again 



About Chewing 221 

and the little buckets get no rest at all. They 
work and work. All the spittle they make is 
wasted, because it was meant to digest food, and 
chewing-gum is not food but a cheat. 

The spittle buckets get so tired and use up so 
much good material wetting that stupid stuff, that 
when meal time comes, and you eat good food, 
they cannot supply really good spittle enough to 
digest it. Then the food goes down into the 
stomach only partly moistened and sweetened, 
and the poor Stomach Dwarf gets very cross be- 
cause he has too much extra work to do. 

He says for instance : " Here I have been 
trotting to the stairway, every few minutes all 
day, because telegrams came that something had 
been swallowed and that I must see to it I Each 
time I looked, I found a swallow of spittle, 
flavored with wintergreen or some other stuff 
like that 1 The very idea of wasting spittle and 
of disturbing me for nothing. I think master 
must have taken leave of his senses I If he 
doesn't look out I'll get mad, for while I am 
ready to work, I hate to be fooled ! " 

Children who must chew something all the 
time — a piece of paper, or a bit of rubber when 
they cannot get anything else — are doing great 
harm to their spittle buckets as you see. When 
they grow up, chewing will be such a habit, that 
they will feel unhappy and lost without some- 



222 Y:^ r s-:'.f 

thing in their mouths, and then thej may take to 
chewing tobacc; 

Many mothers — who do not know what harm 
they are doing — give their babies robber nipples 
to suck whenever they whimper or cry. The 
babies, — whose instinct is to suck whatever is 
put into their mouths — then stop crying, for they 
cannot suck and cry at the same time. This is 
all mothers want. But they do not know that 
all the time a baby sucks that robber, his poor 
little spittle buckets have ic :rk very hard. 

When real food is given him after awhile, the 
tired spittle buckets cannot make good spittle, 
the food does not digest well, the baby frets 
more and more, and every one wonders why that 
child has such a weak stomach I 

Never let your baby begin to sock a robber 
nipple or his thumb. Stop it every time he tries 
it, and he'll soon get into good habits. It may 
give } T ou a little more trouble at first, but it is 
sure to give you less in the end, and it is far, far 
better for the darling's health. 

86. Nature's S::^et. 

Did you ever go to yoor father or mother for 
help in your arithmetic, for instance, and find out 

that while they could do your sums and get the 
right answers, they often did them in a very 
different way from your teacher, and could not 



Nature's Secret 223 

explain to you as clearly the reasons why they 
did them so } 

Father and mother — especially if they are 
older — may know even more than your teacher 
does, but as it is not their business to teach 
arithmetic, they do not know the best and short- 
est way to go to work about it. Each person, 
you know, has his or her own trade or work, 
and while your mother may be the best mother, 
or housekeeper, or dressmaker, or artist there 
ever was, she may not be a good teacher. 

Your father may be the best plumber, doctor, 
waiter, musician, or bookkeeper in the whole 
country, and still not be able to teach you arith- 
metic. 

Of course a few parents have a gift for teach- 
ing and explaining, and thus can do it better than 
any one else ; but many others know so well that 
they cannot teach, that they are very glad to have 
you go to school and learn from others all you 
need know. 

It is because most parents don't know how to 
explain hard things in an easy way, that they so 
often say: " Oh, don't bother mel" " Ask 
some one else," or " You couldn't understand even 
if I were to tell you," or " You must wait until 
you grow up before you can understand that ! " 

Some parents also think that as they cannot 
explain many true things in such a way that their 



224 Yourself 

children will understand, they must satisfy them 
by telling them fairy-tales or nonsense. As you 
know, there is some very pleasant nonsense 
which makes you laugh, and there is provoking 
nonsense which makes you angry. The loveliest 
of all fairy-tales, and the very nicest nonsense 
there ever was, is the story of Santa Claus. 

Now that you are all more than ten years oid, 
you surely know that Santa Claus never lived at 
all, and that the reindeers, the visit down each 
chimney, the sleighful of toys, and all the rest, 
is just make-believe of the very nicest kind. 
Your parents enjoyed it all so much when they 
were little, that they wanted you to have the 
same fun too, while you could, and therefore 
they let you believe what was not true. 

Christmas is never half so merry when one no 
longer believes in Santa Claus, so they let you 
read and talk about him all you pleased, and 
never told you that it was all a fairy-tale until 
they had to. 

Besides, Christmas — the birthday of Christ — 
means so much that is beautiful and holy to most 
Christian parents, that they always think it better 
to wait until children are old enough to under- 
stand, before they tell them all the story of the 
Child born in a manger, whose birth proved such 
a blessing to all the world, although His life was 
so sad. 



Nature's Secret 22$ 

The longer you live and the older you get, the 
clearer you will see that it is always hardest to 
talk of the things we care about most. For 
instance, you can easily tell me how much you 
love your cat, your bicycle, your doll or your 
ball, but when you want to tell your mother how 
dearly you love her, you can only hug and kiss 
her and say, over and over again : " I love you, 
ever and ever so much 1 " 

Many good fathers and mothers often feel so 
deeply about religion, that they seldom talk 
about it, but expect their children to learn all 
about it in church, in Sunday-school, and from 
their books. In the same way, many fathers 
and mothers — who know all about being parents 
and where all the babies come from — often can- 
not answer your simplest question about that, 
because they feel it too deeply. 

Some of them feel so very deeply that they 
say: " Oh, don't tell the children anything about 
it ! They cannot understand yet. Just let them 
believe any fairy-tale they please, but don't 
tell them the truth. Let them find out all 
about it only by and by, when they are much 
older." 

But I am sure you are already quite old 
enough to understand, provided it is made clear 
to you. I am therefore going to tell you truly 
how all the babies — the plant babies, the fish 



226 Yourself 

babies, the animal babies, and the human babies 
— come into the world. This is what is often 
called " Nature's Secret." 

Now you surely all know that secrets are very 
sacred, and very precious. We tell secrets only 
to persons whom we know we can trust, and it 
is because I feel sure that I can trust you, that I 
am telling you now. Remember that you must 
keep any secret which is trusted to you. That is 
to say you must not talk about it to any one, 
unless the person who told it to you says you 
may. 

You may talk to mother about ''Nature's 
Secret," as much as you please, and you may 
talk about it to your teacher if you read this book 
in school, but all the rest of the time I expect 
you not to say one word about it to any one else, 
and to keep it to yourself. Children who are 
true, and who have a nice sense of honor, can 
always be trusted, and I feel sure, though I can- 
not look straight into your eyes, that you can be 
trusted. So show yourselves worthy of this trust 
by not talking at all about sacred matters like 
this to any one except your mother. 

All the grown up people know all about Nature's 
secret, as you see it is really no secret at all, but 
it is called a secret because it is a very sacred and 
private matter, which nice-minded people never 
mention lightly. 



About Plant Babies 227 

87. About Plant Babies. 

You have already heard that plants are alive, 
that they eat and drink, as it were, that they 
breathe and that they grow. When God made 
the first tree, the first plant, and the first blade of 
grass or bit of moss, He made it as a pattern. 
He did not wish to go on forever and ever ma- 
king all the trees, plants, grass and moss, needed 
to cover the bare earth with beauty, and to give 
food to animals and man, so He gave each living 
thing the power to make others just like itself. 

Every plant, tree, blade of grass, and every 
bit of moss, was to grow, bloom, and bear fruit 
or seed, and from this seed, new plants, new 
trees, new blades of grass, and new bits of moss 
were to grow, just like the pattern first made by 
God. 

You may not know that God also decided that 
all living things should be of one of two kinds, 
or sexes, that is to say, either male or female. 
There are therefore male and female plants, male 
and female fishes, male and female birds and 
other animals, and men and women, or male and 
female human beings. 

God wanted creatures of the same kind to love 
each other, and be kind to one another, so He 
also divided all living things into families. There 
are plant families, as well as animal and human 
families, and when you come to study in higher 



228 Yourself 

classes, you will learn much more than I can tell 
you about the plant, animal and human families. 

There are plant families, as we have said. 
These families have different ways of living and 
of bringing up their children. Sometimes the 
father and mother live on the same plant, and 
even in the same flower-house. Sometimes the 
father lives in one flower-house and the mother 
in another. 

When father and mother live in the same 
flower-house, they can settle their family affairs 
all alone, but when they live on different plants, 
or in different flower-houses, they have to send 
messages to one another by the bees, the butter- 
flies and the wind. 

To make you understand just what takes place. 

I am going to make believe that the flowers talk. 
They may talk really, but as it is not any lan- 
guage we can hear or understand, we often say 
that they cannot speak. 

Whenever the flowers open wide, you can see, 
down in the centre of each father flower, some 
pretty yellow dust. When this yellow dust is 
ready to drop or fly away, the father flower says : 

II Here is some nice yellow dust. God has hid- 
den away in each little speck of this yellow dust 
the power to grow into a plant just like me. 
But this dust is so small and so delicate, that it 
can easily get lost. I wish I knew of some nice 



About Plant Babies 229 

safe place where I could hide it, where it would 
be warm, could get food, and grow nicely." 

Then the mother flower calls out : " Hidden 
away here, down in my heart, there is a dear lit- 
tle nest, which God bade me make as a cradle 
for flower babies. Just send me your yellow 
dust. I'll tuck it away here safely, and take 
good care of it. We'll see if it can really grow 
up into a flower baby although it is so very small 
now." 

Then the father plant either shakes his yellow 
dust down upon the mother plant, or the wind, 
or the bees, or the butterflies carry it over to 
her. 

The tiny specks of yellow dust slip down a 
little passage, or tube, which leads right to the 
little flower nest, where they are safely tucked 
away by the mother plant. There, the mother 
brings them food and air, and there they grow 
and grow bigger and bigger. 

If the flower cradle did not grow bigger and 
bigger too, the flower babies would soon be 
much too large for their nests. The flower 
mother is so busy seeing that her babies have 
food and air enough (it is all carried to them by 
the sap-boats, just as food is carried to our mus- 
cles by the blood-boats), that she quite forgets 
to look after herself at all. 

Her pretty dress fades and grows ragged, her 



2$o Yourself 

bright color goes away, and one fine day, the 
weary flower mother says : " My work is all 
done 1 My flower babies are fine and strong. I 
am so tired, I think now that they don't need 
me any more at all, I'll just go to sleep ! " 

Then the tired flower mother goes to sleep, 
never to wake up again, for her work in the 
world is all done ; and whenever there is nothing 
more God wishes a flower, an animal or a human 
being to do, He takes back the life which He 
gave them. 

The flower babies don't get any more food 
now, but they feel big and restless. Their nest 
seems much too small. They stretch and stretch, 
until one fine day the thin walls of their little 
room or nest crack, and all the flower babies, or 
seeds, tumble out and fall on the ground. 

Some of these flower babies — for there are 
often ever so many of them tucked away in the 
same little room — are eaten up by the birds, some 
dried up by the sun, some soaked and spoiled 
by the rain, but a few get trodden into the 
ground, where they lie safely, until they begin to 
sprout and grow there in their own way. 

Get a pea, or a bean, or a morning-glory seed, 
— any seed is a plant baby, you know, — plant it 
and see it grow. The seed swells, the shell or 
skin cracks, a tiny root pushes downward, little 
leaves push upward, and before long you have a 



The Fish Babies 231 

plant, just like the father and mother of that baby 
seed. 

Even big oak-trees grow up out of tiny acorns, 
and. oaks, as well as bits of grass, once had a 
father and a mother. In time, when baby 
plants grow big enough, they will be either 
father or mother to other trees or plants just like 
themselves. Now you know exactly where all 
the plant babies come from, for I have told you 
the whole truth in this easy way. 

88. The Fish Babies. 

Fishes live in the water. As water is cold and 
chills warm-blooded creatures, all fishes have 
cold blood, or at least blood not nearly so warm 
as ours. It is always said that cold-blooded crea- 
tures are far less loving than those with warm 
blood, so you will not be surprised to hear that 
most fishes do not care very much for their little 
babies. 

There are male and female, or father and 
mother fishes, just as there are male and female 
plants. It was God who made the first fishes, 
and gave them the power to make other fishes 
like themselves. 

You often have fish for dinner, do you not ? 
Well, once in a while, mother gets what is 
known as a roe-fish. You know, do you not, 
that before chickens or fishes are cooked, they 



232 Yourself 

are always opened. The insides are carefully 
taken out and thrown away, before the chicken 
or fish is cooked. 

When mother buys a roe-fish, you find in its 
belly, besides the insides, many, many tiny little 
round things, which look like beads, and which 
are all wrapped up in a fine but very strong skin, 
which keeps them apart from the bowels and all 
the rest of the fish. 

These bead-like things are fish eggs, and they 
are never found, except at certain times, in the 
body of a female fish. 

God made in the body of the first female fish, 
a little skin room, in which many, many eggs 
could grow. In spring, when the water gets 
nice and warm, these tiny eggs — they are made 
and fed by the fish-blood-boats which bring them 
air and food, — swell and swell, and when they 
reach the right size, the female fish begins to look 
around for a nice place where she can hide them. 

Most fishes like to lay their eggs in some river 
or brook, where they think baby-fishes can 
thrive best, so the mother fishes swim away to 
find the mouths of rivers or brooks. 

As there are male as well as female fishes, the 
females soon meet male fishes, swimming around 
in the lakes or seas. Now, as I want you to 
know just what happens, we'll make believe that 
fishes talk. 



The Fish Babies 233 

The male fish says : " When God made the 
first male fish, He gave him the power to give 
life to other fishes just like himself. In my body 
there is a liquid. If I could only pour it over 
some fish eggs, I am sure there would soon be 
nice little fishes just like me. I wonder where I 
can find some fish eggs ? " 

Then the female fish says : " I know. If you 
come with me, I will show you. I have some 
nice fish eggs. You can be father, and I'll be 
mother to a big family of fish babies I " Then 
the two fishes swim off together. 

By and by they come to a place where the 
water is nice and still, where the sand is fine, 
where the sun shines warmly, and the mother- 
fish says: " Here is a nice place. I am going 
to lay the eggs, which are hidden away in a little 
nest in my body, right here I " 

Then the door to the little egg room opens, 
and the eggs drop out on the fine sand. When 
the mother fish has laid all her eggs, the father 
fish comes swimming along, and when he sees 
those nice eggs he pours out over them the 
liquid which is in his body. Then all the eggs 
which are touched by the liquid can grow and 
grow, until they become baby-fishes. But those 
which the father liquid does not touch never 
grow at all, they spoil and are lost. 

Some father and mother fishes stay around near 



234 Yourself 

their eggs, to watch them until the tiny baby 
fishes break out of the fish eggs, begin to swim 
around, and can look after themselves. But 
other father and mother fishes swim away just as 
soon as their egg-nest is made. You see, they 
are cold-blooded, and so do not have much 
affection for their young. 

As there are hundreds and thousands of fish 
eggs in the body of one female fish, you can 
easily imagine how many baby fishes there are. 
But, as many big fishes feed on small ones, ever 
and ever so many of these baby fishes are eaten 
up, long before they can grow up to be father 
and mother fishes in their turn. Were it not so, 
there would soon be so many fishes in the sea, 
that they would be packed there as tightly as 
they are now in the boxes of salt fish, which we 
buy at the grocer's I 

Now, you know exactly how the baby-fishes 
come into the world, do you not > 

89. The Bird Babies. 

Birds can move even quicker than fishes. 
They live mostly in the air, flying about. As it 
takes a great deal more strength to fly in the air 
than to swim in the water, the blood of the birds 
flows around much quicker than the blood of the 
fishes. Because it flows so much quicker, it is 



The Bird Babies 2tf 

warmer, in fact, birds are the warmest blooded 
of all creatures. 

Now I told you that the warmer the blood the 
better the mind, and the more affection the 
parents showed to their young. So you will not 
be surprised to hear that father and mother bird 
look after their young much better than father 
and mother fish. 

There are male and female birds of every kind. 
God, in the beginning, gave all the birds He 
made, power to make or create other birds like 
themselves, that is to say, to pass on the life which 
He had given them to their young, so that even 
when they were all dead and gone, there would 
still be other birds to fly around, and delight us by 
their beauty and song, and to teach us lessons of 
patience and love. 

Early in the spring, when the baby birds of last 
summer are full grown male and female birds, 
they begin to feel that they ought to do some- 
thing more than eat and drink, fly about and sing, 
and that they should use the power which God 
gave them and pass on some of their joyous life 
to other birds. So the young male birds begin 
to sing. As I want you to know what it is they 
sing, I'll put the song you have so often heard, 
into words which you can understand, just as well 
as any of the female birds who hear it. 

The male bird sings : " Here I Here ! look 



a: rate '. As ir.e a bird as eve: vta'd see! I 
car. :.y, I oar. s iag I ara ;:_rg I an stror.g 
Last summer my brothers, my sisters and I, were 

ah bird babies u: .1 a aear htiie rest :a £ shad-,- 
::ee. I reraenaer taat :.es: wei. I reraerare'r 
h:w father aaa nether Lew a::.-; a. dav . : : g 
g e 1 1: r. g soar. r..:e f a t w : rr. s aaa a. . e s a.r. a s . - g s 
for us to eat 1 

" I a like :: buhid a lest : ast "ike that :r.e ao 
in the fork of some nice tree. B_t i a i.ke to 

helped my father. there ncc 

fenaie bird wh:'a be v. LI ..:.z t: heir rate - *.Ve 
could build that nest tc g e 1 1 e r . Wc ; t _ i a iac . t 
wi:h Lire s:ft ~:ss aaa feathers. Tier, she 
could lay some pretty errs in .t. While she 
hatched those eggs, I would sit op on a branch 
aid s.ig :: her. I'd at aaa get i.re warns to 
feea to her. Wheaever she waited t: stretch 
her legs or wings I'd s it those eta: ie eggs 
so as to keep them nice and warm until she came 
back. Thea. wher, tie bab\ a r a s line rat :: 
the shells, Id help her fee a treat rd hunt worms 
and slugs all day long. 

■•'.Vher. ever ag oarae, aaa she t_;;iea :a: 
babies safe under her wing, I'd sing a little song 
to put them to sleep, before I put my own weary 
head under my wing to go to sleep too. I'd 
wake up first in die morning, when die Tery first 



More About Bird Babies 237 

pink or yellow glow appeared in the east, and as 
soon as I heard my little wife's first chirp, I'd 
pour out a glad morning song before we started 
out together to take our morning bath and get 
the wee babies 1 breakfast. 

" When our babies got big enough to fly, she 
and I would teach them how to look after them- 
selves, and when they grew so big and strong 
that they did not need us any longer, my 
little wife and I would fly away together to the 
sunny South, where we would spend the long, 
cold winter." 

90. More About Bird Babies. 

You heard in our last chapter what the male 
bird sings. By and by, a female bird, who has 
no mate as yet, but who is looking around for 
some one to help her build a nest, listens to his 
song. She says : " Are you quite sure, you big, 
strong bird, that you won't get tired waiting on 
me during the long weeks I'll have to sit on my 
eggs, so as to keep them warm and hatch out 
baby birds? If you are selfish, if you want to 
fly off to have a good time, I'll starve, or else I'll 
have to leave my eggs uncovered. Eggs can 
soon grow cold, you know, and a mere chill 
would be quite enough to kill my babies. Then, 
too, even after they come safely out of the shell, 
you and I will have to work very hard, or our 



238 Yourself 

babies will starve. Are you quite sure you can 
be a good and patient husband and father ? Are 
you quite sure you can forget your own comfort 
to think only of me and of our babies for a 
while ? " 

If the male bird can satisfy the female bird, so 
that she feels she can trust him, they mate, that 
is to say, they become bird husband and wife, 
and go off together to build their nest. The 
female bird soon finds out that the male bird is 
always ready to give her the nicest worms he 
finds, to carry the heaviest sticks and the longest 
straws, and that he is cheerful and good tem- 
pered, and ready to sing to her when she wakes 
up and when she goes to sleep. 

Bird husband and wife learned to love each 
other dearly, and if you watch pigeons, for in- 
stance, you will see and hear them billing and 
cooing, which is bird way of kissing each other 
and calling each other pet names. 

Mated birds are husband and wife, so of 
course they are very intimate and tell each other 
all their secrets, and things no one else need 
know. As birds' eggs have hard shells, and the 
life fluid cannot soak through those, the father 
bird gives some of his to the mother bird, who 
stows it away in the eggs before the hard shell 
grows all around them. 

Three, four, five or more eggs are always laid 



More About Bird Babies 239 

in each nest, and the hard shell around them 
prevents their being crushed flat, when the 
mother bird begins to sit upon them so as to 
hatch them. In each little egg, there is a tiny 
speck or drop of life-fluid, so that it can change 
and grow into a baby bird, or young chick, if 
kept warm enough. In each egg there is also 
stowed away all the food each little bird will need 
until he is strong enough to break his shell. 
This food is what is called the white and yoke 
of the egg. And up at one end, you can also 
find a little supply of air for the baby bird to 
breathe. 

For about three weeks, the mother bird — who 
never kept still for a moment in her life before 
except when she was asleep, — sits on these eggs 
with outspread wings, to keep them snug and 
warm. She sits quite still, although it is keen 
torture for her, and while she sits there so 
patiently, the father bird gets her nice worms to 
eat, sings pretty songs to cheer her, and helps 
and encourages her all he can. 

When she has to leave the nest for a few 
minutes every day, to stretch her poor cramped 
legs, and flutter her stiff wings, the father bird 
sits upon the eggs to keep them warm. But he 
soon grows weary of this work, and is very glad 
indeed when the mother bird comes back again. 
You see, each one has special duties, and as the 



240 Yourself 

father-bird's work is to rush around and get food, 
of course he would rather do that. 

One fine day, the mother bird calls to the fa- 
ther bird : " Oh, my dear, my dear! I do be- 
lieve our bird babies are soon going to creep out 
of their shells. I hear a faint noise. It sounds 
like ' pick I pick ! ' just as if they were tapping 
their little bills against the shells to peck their 
way out 1 " 

Father and mother bird are very much excited, 
and sure enough, before long baby birds come 
creeping out of their shells, to receive a loving 
welcome. The empty, broken shells are quickly 
flung out of the nest, and as the new bird babies 
shiver with cold, the mother bird covers them 
close with her soft feathers, until they feel quite 
warm, and dry, and happy. 

After awhile the baby birds begin to say: 
" Peep I Peep 1 "which means : "I am hungry I 
I am so hungry ! give me something to eat 1 " 

The father and mother bird are kept very 
busy during the next few weeks feeding these 
hungry babies. At first, they chew all the food 
for them, and give it to them only when it is nice 
and soft ; but after a while, the bird babies are 
able to eat whole worms and grain, nice fat 
slugs, and bits of ripe cherries and berries. 
Then they grow big and soon tumble out of the 
nest and learn to fly. 



Animal Babies 241 

Your father and mother often say they have 
their hands pretty full looking after the wants of 
one baby at a time, but father and mother bird 
always have several babies at once to bring up, 
so you can imagine how very busy and tired they 
must be. 

It is because birds are such very good parents, 
because they are so loving, so tender, so patient 
and so active, that they are often held up to us as 
examples, and all those who love and understand 
birds, can learn a great deal of good from them. 

You have now heard how all the bird babies 
come into the world, and I hope you have also 
learned a little how beautiful the life of a bird 
family can be. 

91. Animal Babies. 

As you have seen, plant babies and fish babies 
look after themselves just as soon as they break out 
of the seed, or egg t in which they are safely tucked 
away. There are so very many of them, that it 
does not matter if some are lost, some starved, and 
some eaten up. There are still plenty left. 

Bird babies are not nearly so plentiful as fish 
or plant babies, so they are guarded far more 
carefully while they are young and small, and 
allowed to leave the home nest only when quite 
able to look out for themselves. 

Besides birds and fishes, there are, as you 



242 Yourself 

know, many, many other animals in the world. 
The finer they are, the more delicate their babies 
are apt to be, and the more carefully they have 
to be nursed when little. A creature as light as 
a bird, can easily sit upon eggs until they are 
hatched, but just imagine what would happen if 
an elephant had to sit on eggs 1 

God always knows what is best to do, so when 
He made the first animals, He settled that ever so 
many of them should hatch their eggs, inside and 
not outside of their own bodies. All the animals 
who do this, have breasts in which milk comes to 
feed their young when they are born, so they are 
all called mammals, or breast animals. 

There are male and female animals of each 
kind among the mammals, to whom God has 
given the power to make other animal bodies just 
like themselves. Just as every plant, and fish 
and bird, has to have a father and mother, all the 
mammals have to have fathers and mothers too. 

You all know that cows give milk, so cows are 
mammals, are they not > In the cow's body, as 
in the bird's and the fish's, there is a little room, 
which God provided as a home for the cow's 
baby. Here the cow-blood-boats bring air, and 
food, and material to make a tiny egg. This egg 
is very, very small and soft, although the cow is 
so very big, but when the life fluid once gets into 
it, it begins to grow. In a little while it hatches 



Animal Babies 243 

into a baby calf. The calf stays in the little 
room, where the cow-blood-boats bring it all the 
air and food it needs, and plenty of material so 
that it can grow. 

When it is big and strong, the door opens, and 
the calf drops out, or is born, as we often call it. 
The mother cow then licks her calf to show it 
how dearly she loves it, and when the calf stands 
up on its long, shaky legs, and says in calf-talk : 
"lam hungry 1 " the mother answers : 

"Well, my dear, God knew you would be 
hungry, so He sent some milk into my milk bag 
(the cow's breast). Just help yourself, my dear, 
suck all you want." If you have ever seen baby 
calves feed, you will know that they are very 
greedy little things, so mamma cow does not need 
to say twice 4i Help yourself I " 

The baby calf is very glad to suck milk from 
its mother's breast until its teeth are full grown. 
Then it begins to eat hay, and grass and grain, 
and by and by it stops nursing entirely, to eat 
just what its mother eats. 

As cows are very precious animals, they gen- 
erally have but one calf at a time, although twin 
calves are sometimes seen. Most mares, or 
mamma horses, have only one baby colt at a 
time, because horses are very precious too, but 
cats often have four or five kittens at once, and 
dogs three or four puppies. 



244 Yourself 

Because cats, and dogs, and pigs, have several 
babies to nurse at a time, God has given them 
several breasts, which fill with milk whenever the 
babies need it. In that way, all the babies can 
nurse at once, and have all the milk they want or 
need. 

Baby cows and baby horses come into the 
world all covered with hair, and with wide open 
eyes ; but puppies and kittens are not one bit 
pretty at first. They have no hair as yet, and 
their eyes are tightly closed. Their eyes are 
shut, because they are not yet strong enough to 
bear the light. In about nine days they grow 
strong enough to open, and then the puppies and 
kittens can see all right. 

There are some children, who, not knowing 
what I have told you, actually try to open the 
eyes of poor little puppies or kittens 1 This is 
horribly cruel. It hurts the delicate little crea- 
tures so dreadfully, that they often become blind 
from it. 

So, children, never, never handle little animal 
babies until you have learned all about them, for, 
without meaning to do so, you may do them more 
harm than you can imagine, and spoil all their 
happy lives. 

92. Stories Told About Human Babies. 
After learning exactly how all the plant, fish, 



Stories Told About Human Babies 24$ 

bird and animal babies come into the world, I 
suppose you wonder how you got here yourself. 
Since I promised to tell you all you care to know 
about yourself, I am going to tell you that too. 

You know that you are very different from 
animals. They have bodies, and life, and in- 
stinct, but they have no mind or soul, such as 
you have. It is because you have a mind and a 
soul that you are said to be made after God's 
own image. 

When you were little, you often asked where 
you came from, and as you could not understand 
then, what I am going to tell you now, you were 
probably told fairy-tales, or things which were 
only true in a way. Mamma may have told you 
that God sends all the little babies. That is 
perfectly true, for all life does come from God. 
You may also have seen pictures like this, where 
a lovely angel brings a laughing baby down from 
Heaven in its arms. But if you had really come 
to papa and mamma in this way, they could not 
love you quite as much as they do now, for the 
reason you are soon going to hear. 

If your parents ever heard German fairy-tales, 
or if you had a German nurse, you may have 
been told that a stork came flying in one day, 
carrying you in his bill, and that he laid you down 
beside mamma, and bit her leg, so that she had 
to stay in bed until quite well again. That too, 



246 Yourself 

is only a fairy-tale, like the story of Santa Claus. 
But it is great fun to believe it when you are too 
little to understand the truth. 

You may also have been told that the doctor 
brought you, or that mamma found you in a cab- 
bage, or something of the sort. There is a speck 
of truth about all these stories, as you will see 
when you know all. 

You heard, did you not, how the male and fe- 
male bird found each other and how they agreed 
to make a dear little home for themselves and for 
their family ? Well, when a man is quite grown 
up, when he is strong and well, and feels that he 
can earn enough to make a home, he begins to 
think about marrying too. As he has a soul, he 
wants to find a wife with a soul like his, a wife 
whom he can love and trust. 

He looks around him, and when he meets the 
right woman — the woman who has a soul like 
his, — he asks her to be his wife, and come and 
make a home for him. Then they two are mar- 
ried, either by a priest or by a minister, if they are 
Christians or believe in any special religion, or 
before a magistrate, if they prefer. 

In marrying, the man promises to love his 
wife, to work for her, to take care of her when 
she is sick and when she is well, and to be not 
only a good husband to her alone, but a good 
father to any children God may send into his 



How You Grew 247 

home. You see, this is a very solemn promise. 
Because a good home is the loveliest thing in the 
world, every one feels interested in such a young 
couple, and all their friends wish them luck, 
health, and happiness, and bring them gifts. 

93. How You Grew. 

You have all seen weddings, have you not > 
And you all know that when the wedding is over, 
it is right and proper for the young woman to 
leave her father and mother, and go away with 
the young man, so that they can begin a new life 
together, and make a new home. Never mind 
what kind of a home it is, whether it is in one 
small room only, or in the grandest palace you 
ever saw, if the man and woman really love each 
other, wherever they are together, they are at 
home, and they feel so strongly that they are 
one, that they often, in joking-earnest talk of 
each other as their " better half." 

At first, your family was a very small one, only 
papa and mamma. While father was away at 
work all day, mother was quite alone, and when 
she saw other homes where there were little 
children to keep the mothers company, she often 
wished she had some too. 

Mamma knew that the souls of people (the 
masters of their little houses), are sent by God, 
to live in human bodies. Although she did not 



248 Yourself 

know what souls are made of — nobody does 
know that except God, — she knew that the little 
houses in which they live and grow are made of 
food and air. 

Mamma knew that in her body, just as in the 
body of all female animals, there was a little room 
in which God made as a home for tiny babies. 
In that room, mamma's little blood-boats made a 
tiny little egg, so small that it could not be seen 
except with a microscope. Just like the bird's 
egg, it grew and changed as soon as some of 
father's life fluid got into it. 

But this tiny egg was hatched inside of 
mother's body, and when you first came out of 
it, you were so small, so very small, that no one 
could have seen you. Babies as small as that 
could not of course be handled at all, so God 
decided that they should stay right in the little 
room where they were hatched, until big enough 
to be trusted out in this world. Just so, baby 
birds are kept in the nest until it is safe for them 
to leave it. 

You, therefore, stayed in mother's little room, 
week after week and month after month, for 
about three-quarters of a year. Mother knew 
you were there, for she could feel your little 
hand or foot tapping against the wall of the room 
as if to say, " how do you do" to her. Mother 
could not see you, and did not know what you 



How You Grew 249 

looked like, but she could feel you were alive 
— just as you can feel your heart beat — and she 
knew that you were growing. As you were part 
of mother's body, and alive, you needed both 
food,, and air. These were brought to you by 
mother's blood-boats. 

Mother wanted her baby to be as well and 
strong as possible, so she was very careful to 
breathe nice pure air, and to eat nothing but 
good wholesome food. She also wanted you to 
grow as big as you could, so she did not wear 
any tight clothes at all, so as not to squeeze you 
up in that little room. Because she wanted you 
to be a jolly, happy baby, she thought only of 
nice, pleasant things, tried to be happy all the 
time, and sang and smiled while at work. 

As long as you lived in the little room in 
mother's body, you were warm and snug and 
safe, and while mother watched carefully over 
you, father watched as carefully over her. Like 
the father bird I told you about, he got all she 
needed, kept her company whenever he could, 
cheered and encouraged her, and, knowing no 
feathers grow on human babies, earned money 
enough to get clothes, so that you would have all 
you needed when you came into this world, or 
were born, as it is called. 

As you grew bigger and bigger, you needed 
more and more air and food, and mother's blood- 



2 $0 Yourself 

boats were so busy feeding you, and helping you 
to grow big and strong, that they could not spare 
much food or air to keep mother herself well and 
strong. But mother loved you so dearly, that 
she wanted you to have the very best she could 
give you, and she did not care at all what hap- 
pened to her, as long as she knew that you were 
all right. 

94. How You Came into the World. 

Next time you take a bath, just look at the 
queer little hole in the middle of your belly or 
abdomen. While you lived in mother's little 
room, a pipe went right down into this little hole, 
and through this pipe the blood-boats sent by 
mamma's pumping dwarfs, carried food and air 
into your tiny body, to build it up bit by bit with 
the materials they brought. 

All the good air mother breathed, helped to 
make your little house, and all the good food she 
ate was just so much building material for you. 
That is why children are so often told that they 
were found in cabbages, in carrots, or in 
potatoes. Really, you know, the cabbages, 
carrots, potatoes, etc., only served to make a 
part of the blood out of which your little body 
was made. 

There are some things — as I told you before, — 
which no one has ever been able to find out. 



How You Came into the World 2$i 

One of these is just when and how your soul got 
into your body. No one — not even the wisest 
doctor who ever lived — knows anything about 
this. But we believe that the soul was sent by 
God to live and grow in the little house which 
mother was so busy making for you. 

When you were big enough to make it safe for 
you to come out into the world, God opened the 
door of the little room where you had been so 
snug and safe. Then you first saw the light, 
and mamma, who had been far more patient even 
than the mother bird I have told you about, was 
very, very happy to see and hear you at last. 

As long as you had lived in mamma's body, 
she had breathed for you, but when you came 
out of the little room, the air rushed into your 
lungs, which now began their life work, and after 
that, you could, if necessary, have lived without 
mamma. 

Sometimes, when God opens the door of the 
little room, the pain is so great, that poor 
mammas die, and as it always makes mothers 
very ill, the doctor generally has to come and 
take care of them. It is also the doctor who 
ties up the pipe opening in a baby's abdomen, 
and that is why mammas and nurses so often tell 
children that the baby came when the doctor did, 
and children fancy that he brought it in his 
satchel 1 



252 Yourself 

The little room in mamma's body where you 
lived before you were born is made of soft skin, 
and is warm and moist just like the inside of your 
mouth. Put your finger in your mouth and just 
leave it there for awhile, closing your lips tightly 
over it. When you take it out again, you will 
find that it is much warmer and redder than the 
other fingers, and slightly wrinkled. Now, 
you know, you stayed in the little room — 
where it was so warm and so moist — for 
many, many months, so it is no wonder that 
when you came out first, you were very red and 
wrinkled. 

Many people when they first see a new-born 
baby are terribly disappointed because it is red 
and wrinkled, but now you know just why it is 
so. In a few days the wrinkles go away, baby 
is no longer as red as a little lobster, and then 
you can see how pretty it really is. 

Little babies are so delicate, that mammas and 
nurses have to take the very best care of them. 
No cold air must strike them at first, no bright 
light shine in their weak eyes, no loud noises 
startle them, and no rough touch hurt them. 
But, as mother is often too ill to look after the 
baby at first, she often has some one else to help 
her ; still, as soon as she gets well enough, she 
generally takes care of her dear baby her own 
self. 



Why You Should Love Your Mother 253 

95. Why You Should Love Your Mother. 

As little babies, — like all birds and other ani- 
mals, — need plenty of food to grow, and as they 
cannot as yet eat the same kind of food we do, 
Go.d sends milk into mothers' breasts to feed 
them. But if mother is not very strong, she 
sometimes finds that she has not milk enough to 
satisfy her baby, and then she gives it a bottle. 

Because mothers give a part of their own life 
to their children, because they have to watch 
over them so long before they come, and because 
they often suffer such pain when they are born, 
mothers love them much more than if they came 
straight down from Heaven in an angel's arms. 

You know how it is yourself, you always like 
even a doll or a toy better when it is all your 
own, than when you buy it in a store or if it 
is given to you. So mamma loves her baby much 
better than any other because it is her very own. 

Good mothers feel that God is very kind when 
He lets them have a baby of their very own, and 
sends down a little soul to dwell in its tiny body. 
They know that the time will come when the 
body will die, but they feel that the soul will 
never die, and they want to make it beautiful and 
strong so they can tell God that they carefully 
trained the soul He trusted to their keeping. 

It is because mother has done so much for you 
— so much more than you can ever understand, 



2 $4 Yourself 

until you are a father or mother yourself, — that 
you ought always to love her, to obey her, and 
to be as good to her as you can. No boy or 
girl can ever be too good to his or her mother, 
nor too ready to help or to serve her. When she 
grows old and you grow up, you must always re- 
member that it is your turn now to take care of 
her, and thus repay her a little, for all she has 
done for you. 

Whenever we see a boy or girl loving and obe- 
dient, trying to help mother and to please her, we 
know that she is a proud and happy mother, and 
we feel sure that her child will turn into a good 
man or woman. 

When we see a boy rude to his mother, or 
disobedient, we think: "Either you have no 
idea of what your mother suffered for you, and 
of all she did for you, or you are a little brute ! " 

When a girl lets her mother do all the work, 
and thinks of nothing but her own comfort or 
pleasure, we think: " If you know how your 
mother cared for you, before you came into the 
world, and while you were a wee baby, you are 
an ungrateful little wretch if you do not help her 
now, for you should be only too glad to be able 
to do something for her in your turn." 

96. Why You Should Love Your Father. 
We have talked a great deal about your mother 



Why You Should Love Your Father 255 

until now, but remember that your father has a 
share in you too. Because he gave you life, be- 
cause he took care of you and of mother, all the 
time you were growing, because he gave you the 
clothes you wear, and the food you eat, because 
he" helped take care of you while you were help- 
less, and gives you a home, you ought to love 
him very dearly and obey him just as well as 
mother. 

Remember that good fathers and mothers are 
watching their children all the time. If you 
grow up to be the kind of man or woman of 
whom they can be proud, they will be so happy 1 
But if you bring shame upon them, if you are 
idle or disobedient, you will make them very, 
very unhappy. Just think how glad you will feel 
if they can say every year : " I am so glad you 
were born, you have always been such a blessing 
to your father and mother I " But just imagine 
too how badly you would feel, if you knew that 
they wished you had never been born ! Good 
husbands and fathers and all real gentlemen are 
always very kind to their wives and children for 
they know how easily they can be hurt for life, 
and no man or boy who knows how tender a 
woman's body is, or what harm a blow can do 
her, ever dreams of laying a rough hand upon 
her. Indeed any one who will strike a woman is 
rightly considered a great brute. 



2 $6 Yourself 

When older people see a woman walking heavily 
or looking rather large, they think: "This may 
be a woman whom God is honoring. Perhaps 
He is entrusting to her the care of an immortal 
soul." Then they feel they cannot do too much 
for her ; so, wherever she goes, she is sure to 
find good men and women ready to help her, 
and to give her a seat in a car or on a boat. 
They show her all respect for the sake of their 
own dear mothers, who, while they were coming 
into the world, needed all the care and tenderness 
that could be shown to them. 

Never be rude therefore, children, or make 
unkind remarks. What you call a " fat woman," 
may be a woman who gave up all her good 
looks and health for her children's sake, or per- 
haps she may be a woman ''with child," as the 
Bible says, in speaking of women whose little 
babies have not yet been born. 



97. About Sex. 

I have explained to you already that as I am 
telling you all about your own body I often have 
to speak of private things, things which are not 
mentioned as a rule. But I expect you to show 
your sense by acting like li tie men or women, 
and not like silly imps. Nice children will read 
all I have to tell them in this book without 



About Sex 2 $7 

giggling, or nudging each other, and they cer- 
tainly will not speak about the sacred parts of 
this book to any one save their mother. 

You may think now that you can speak to any 
one about it, but if you do, you will be very sorry 
when you grow old enough to understand that 
there are some matters too intimate and too 
sacred to be talked about lightly. 

If you do not want to be very, very sorry, and 
to feel the blush of shame rise to your cheek 
every time you think of what you have done, you 
will keep your mouth very tightly shut now, and 
you will stop your ears, and run away, if any one 
but mother tries to talk about these matters to 
you. Those who do so, are either so ignorant 
that they do not even know that these are strictly 
private matters, or they are so evil-minded that 
you must have nothing to do with them. Now 
that I have warned you again, I think it is safe 
to go on teaching you what it is right that you 
should know. 

The very first question every one asks when 
they hear that a new baby has come, is: " Is it a 
boy or a girl ? " You see, it is God only who 
decides who may have babies, and of what sex 
or kind they shall be. There are many, many 
fathers and mothers who would like to have 
babies, but God does not let them. Why that is 
so, nobody knows, but those who trust and love 



2 $8 Yourself 

God, believe that He has some very good reason, 
although they do not know it. 

There is another thing which none of us can 
understand very well, that is why God sometimes 
sends such precious things as little babies to bad 
or careless people. Perhaps it is because He 
thinks that is the only way in which to make 
them good once more. 

Even your papa and mamma — who knew so 
long beforehand that a baby was coming to their 
house — had no idea just when you would appear, 
and whether you would be a boy or a girl. Baby 
boys and baby girls are just alike in everything, 
except their private parts, and it was only when 
you came into this world naked, that the very 
first glance showed them to what sex you be- 
longed. God makes babies different, because 
they are to grow up differently into men or 
into women. 



98. The Seven Year Periods. 

During the first seven years — the years of 
babyhood as they are often called, — boys and 
girls cut all their first set of teeth, grow from 
soft little babies into sturdy youngsters, and 
learn ever so many things. Doctors often tell us 
that it takes just about seven years for the blood- 
boats to renew every part of our body according 



The Seven Year Periods 2 $9 

to the pattern God gave them. That is why we 
often divide life up into seven year periods. 

During the next seven years — the time of girl- 
hood and of boyhood — children grow almost as 
fast as before, learn a great deal more, and cut 
their second teeth. All their body is new again, 
but still they are exactly the same, scars and all, 
and so is the Master of their little house. 

The next seven years are called the " teens" 
or youth. During that time boys and girls grow 
into men and women, and generally they finish 
their school life. 

During their "teens" we see them grow 
taller and broader, more wise and more thought- 
ful, the boys' voices change, and the girls' forms 
grow rounder, and by these signs all grown peo- 
ple know that nature is finishing her work, and 
little by little turning these children into men and 
women. 

Fathers and mothers always feel a little sorry 
to see them grow so fast, because they know 
that as children grow older the duties of life will 
rest more and more heavily upon their young 
shoulders. 

During the fourth period of seven years, men 
and women are full grown, and ready to begin to 
make homes of their own if they choose to do so. 
If they have been wise, and have treated their 
bodies in the right way, they are as straight and 



260 Yourself 

strong and healthy as they can be. If they 
have treated their minds in the right way too, 
their brain storehouse is packed with good and 
useful things, and their muscles and nerves are 
trained to work as quickly and neatly as a first- 
class machine. Such men and women can make 
good homes, and bring up wisely the children 
which God gives them. 

By the time fathers and mothers reach the 
fifth, sixth, and seventh period of seven years 
and begin to feel a little tired, their children are 
generally old enough to wait on them a little, to 
run errands for them, and to save them in many 
ways. We are told that men or women are old 
only when they have reached seventy years of 
age, but many people live to be ninety and even 
one hundred years old if they do not abuse their 
bodies. 

99. Care for Your Bodies and Minds. 

Just look at the picture in the beginning of 
this book. Do you see this dear little girl think- 
ing only of her flowers, and picking more to add 
to the bunch she holds } Do you see this little 
boy trying to catch a butterfly even on the edge 
of a deep precipice ? 

These children know so little about danger, 
that they have wandered to the very edge of this 
abyss. One step further, and they would surely 



Care for Your Bodies and Minds 261 

fall over, and be dashed to pieces. But they are 
such very little children, so young and so ig- 
norant, that God has sent an angel to watch over 
them. The angel has his hands stretched over 
them, ready to catch them and hold them back 
from harm. 

It is nice, is it not, to see that angel so near 
those happy children and to know that no harm 
can happen to the dear little things, although 
they are in such a dangerous place I 

As long as you were very little, mother was 
always there to save you from harm, to hold her 
hand between you and any sharp corner of the 
furniture so that you should not get a bad bump 
or cut, and to guard you night and day. 

Now that you are older, mother cannot go 
with you everywhere. She cannot warn you 
every time you come to dangerous places, and 
cannot snatch you away from harm. But if you 
live in the country, she tells you, for instance, 
not to go too near the pond, where the water is 
deep, and if you live in the city, never to cross 
the street when a trolley car is coming. Still, she 
knows that the master in your house must look 
out for you now, and be your guardian angel. 

Your teachers also warn you of all kinds of 
dangers. They warn you for instance, of the 
danger of telling lies, of being dishonest, of 
growing lazy or selfish, and of many others. 



262 Yourself 

Now there is another danger which you must all 
be warned against, — that of losing your purity, 
both of body and of mind. 

You know the difference, do you not, between 
a glass of pure water and a glass of dirty water ? 
Which would you rather have to drink ? There 
is the same difference — only it is much greater, — 
between pure and impure minds and pure and 
impure bodies. All well-meaning people, long 
to have and to keep bodies and minds as pure as 
they can ; but, to have them pure and keep them 
pure, they must know just what that means. 

You remember how you learned, in the middle 
of this book, that every thought we think, every 
word we hear, everything we see and learn is 
stored away in our brain — whether we know it 
or not, — and that it can never be changed or 
rubbed out ? 

If you think only nice, pure, noble thoughts, 
those only will be stored away in your brain ; 
but if you think horrid, impure, mean thoughts, 
it will be those which will soon fill up your brain 
storehouse. You must, therefore , be very careful 
what company you keep, what books you read, 
what you say and what you do, for all that makes 
up what you are. 

Girls and boys who read only about pirates, 
fights, murders, thefts, and adventures of an ex- 
citing kind, store away in their brain all the 



How to Keep Pure 263 

mean, ugly and horrible things they read. Now, 
you surely don't want to grow up to be thieves, 
murderers, or other vile wretches, do you ? 
Then why are you storing away in your brain all 
the sayings and doings of such folks > 

If you want to grow up to be a hero or heroine, 
read about all the fine, strong, noble things you 
can. By and by, when the time comes, you 
will know what the grand people of the world 
did, and little by little, you will build up a char- 
acter like theirs, and perhaps thus learn to do 
things even greater than any they ever did. 

100. How to Keep Pure. 

To keep our souls and minds pure and noble 
in this way is the very best thing we can do, but 
to do that we must also keep our bodies clean 
and pure. I have explained how to keep your 
skin clean, but it is something more than that 
which I mean by bodily purity. 

I am going to try to explain it to you, how- 
ever hard it may be, so that you can understand 
it clearly. When bodies are beautiful, and 
strong and healthy, and all that they should be, 
we agreed that instead of merely being called 
houses, they really deserved the grander name of 
temple. 

When you come to study history, you will hear 
of the grandest temple the world has ever seen, 



264 Yourself 

which once stood in Jerusalem. This temple 
was a huge building, decorated with marble, and 
gold, and precious stones. It was built by God's 
order, and that temple was called His house. 

People who wanted to worship God went into 
this temple, where there were many courts and 
many rooms. In some of these rooms strangers 
were allowed to enter, in others the worshippers, 
in others the priests and no one else. In the 
most secret and safest part of the temple, there 
was a little place, which was called the Holy of 
Holies, which no one was allowed to enter. 

This was such a sacred place, that no one could 
come near it, nor was any one allowed to lay as 
much as a finger on the big curtain which cut it 
off from the rest of the temple. Once a year, 
after he had said many prayers and done many 
other things, the High Priest went into this place 
by God's order. He could enter only then, and 
only if he had done just as God wished. 

As long as this place was kept sacred in this 
way, the temple stood and was fine and beautiful. 
But there was a war. Some soldiers came into 
the temple. They were wicked men who re- 
spected nothing. They raised the curtain, and 
went into the Holy of Holies, and — to show 
how little they cared for the people who built it, 
or for God, — they drove pigs right into this sacred 
place 1 



How to Keep Pure 265 

The Holy of Holies, which had been kept so 
pure and clean until then, was no longer pure and 
clean, and because God wanted this to be forever 
after a lesson to all the world. He allowed that 
temple to be destroyed. All the world and the 
beauty of it was gone, because it was no longer 
pure and sacred. 

Now, as I told you, it rests with us to make 
temples of our bodies if we choose. God has 
put into each human body a sacred little place 
which is the body Holy of Holies. He wishes 
us to keep it pure, to keep it well hidden (our 
clothes are the curtain), and to guard it against 
any impure thought or touch. 

In a man's body, this Holy of Holies is the 
place where the life fluid or seed is made ; and in 
the woman's body, it is the little room which God 
made as a nest for babies. The place where the 
seed is made is in man's private parts, and the 
door of every woman's little room opens in the 
same passage as the one which empties the waste 
water. 

As long as we remember that these parts of 
our body are holy, and keep them pure, all is 
well ; but, if we are careless, if we forget, or if 
we are wicked, we lose our bodily purity, or our 
bodily honor, and our body is no longer a 
temple. 



266 Yourself 

101. How Boys and Girls Become Men 
and Women. 

You know that a boy's voice does not change 
in a day from childish treble to a deep bass, and 
that a little girl takes some time to turn into a 
young woman. During that time the blood- 
boats are very busy. You see, they have to 
supply food and air enough to all your muscles to 
keep them going, and they have to make your 
house much bigger and broader in every way. 

They work as hard as they can, but there is so 
much to do that sometimes they cannot supply 
food, air and materials enough. Then boys and 
girls are apt to feel cross, tired, lazy, and 
languid ; they often feel like crying when there 
is nothing really to cry about, and they are gen- 
erally uncomfortable and unhappy. 

If you feel that way while in your " teens," 
just be patient with yourself. Remember that 
before long your blood-boats will manage to do 
all the work your body needs. Then you will 
grow cheerful and strong again and all will be 
well. But, if you fret, if you pity yourself, if 
you don't try to control those feelings as much as 
you can, you will meantime be storing away ever 
so many fretful, complaining, weak-minded cells 
in your brain storehouse, and then you cannot 
grow into a hero or heroine, unless you learn to 
conquer those bad habits. 



How to Care for Certain Parts of the Body 267 

Every boy and girl during his or her teens — 
when he or she is laying the foundations for a 
strong man or woman — or for a weakling — ought 
to be particularly careful to consult often the 
three greatest doctors the world has ever seen, 
that > is to say Dr. Water, Dr. Diet and Dr. 
Exercise. If their orders are closely followed, 
the result will be good, if not, — well — no one 
will regret it more than you. 

All during their teens, girls should be par- 
ticularly careful to live wisely and not to wear 
tight clothes. You already know what mischief 
tight clothes do to many parts of the body at all 
times, but while you are changing into a woman, 
they can cramp that little room, and by hurting 
it, make all the little nerves which connect it 
with the rest of the body very, very sore and sick. 

102. How to Care For Certain Parts of 
the Body. 

You remember, do you not, how I told you 
there were many nerves in the body > Well, the 
most delicate ones run from your private parts up 
to your brain, spine, and all the other parts of 
your body. 

If the private parts are always kept very clean, 
by frequent and careful washings, and always 
handled gently while doing so, no harm will be ; 



268 Yourself 

done to these delicate nerves. But, if the private 
parts are not kept clean, if they are roughly 
handled, or if clothes press too tightly upon them, 
those nerves will get very weak and will make 
the whole body unhappy. Now you understand, 
do you not, why you must be so careful even of 
a baby, and why you should always prevent your 
little brothers or sisters from touching their private 
parts. 

It is not all to be careful with very little chil- 
dren. Every human being has to be careful 
about this as long as life lasts. The older you 
grow, the more careful you must be, for if these 
parts are roughly treated, or handled at all when 
not needful, you can lose your health and strength 
and even your mind. 

That is why your mammas try to train you from 
the very first never to touch this part of your per- 
son except when you must, to keep it clean, and 
to be modest at all times, and keep it always 
covered. Any boy or girl who is not careful 
about this, at all times, is not a nice child, and 
you must avoid all such just as if they had the 
smallpox. 

You have probably heard, time and again in 
your lives, that boys are made of "hobs and 
nails and puppy dog tails," while girls are made 
of "sugar and spice and all things nice." Of 
course, that is only a nonsense rhyme, for boys 



How to Care for Certain Parts of the Body 269 

and girls are really made of exactly the same 
things. 

But, you are told this, because fathers and 
mothers want you boys to learn as soon as 
possible to handle girls very gently ; and as you 
could ^not understand the truth when little, you 
were told in a nonsense way. Until ten, a girl 
often minds hard knocks just as little as a boy, 
but after that, while a boy's body daily grows 
harder, hers grows softer. A touch which he 
would not feel, actually hurts her. 

Besides, there is one part of every woman's 
body which is very sensitive, and where the least 
little blow often causes great pain. This is in 
the breast. Many women feel shy about saying 
anything about it, because as they know what God 
made the breasts for, they feel they are too sacred 
to mention. 

Until God sends milk into the breasts to feed 
new-born babies, they are very delicate, and I 
believe that many women wear corsets mainly be- 
cause they serve to protect this tender place in 
their bodies. 

Many growing boys have no idea how strong 
they are getting, how long their arms are, and 
how tough their fingers. They grab at their 
sisters, just as they used to do when they were 
little girls. The sisters — who are often hurt so 
badly that they have to go away and cry — then 



270 Yourself 

scream, and the boys say scornfully " Oh 1 girls 
are always squealing I " but the fact is that if any 
one hurt those very boys half as badly, they 
would surely thrash that person I 

The bigger and stronger you get, boys, the 
gentler you have to learn to be to all the women 
and children, not only in your own family, but 
everywhere else. God gave you all that size and 
strength so that you could protect women and 
children, but remember you must always protect 
them first against any roughness or unkindness 
from yourselves. 

103. About Kissing. 

At school, at church, and in many of the good 
books you will read, you will hear and see over 
and over that it is the duty of every man and 
woman, and of every boy and girl, not only to 
be as healthy as possible, but to keep their minds 
and bodies pure. You now know exactly what 
that means, and I trust you all mean to take it to 
heart. 

Of course, you have already found out that all 
books are not good, and that there are some very 
bad people in this world. You know, for in- 
stance, that some swear, some lie, some steal, 
some murder, and it is true also, that some do 
not care at all about keeping either their minds 
or their bodies pure. 



About Kissing 271 

As I told you before, all pure-minded people 
— who look upon their bodies as a temple which 
must be kept holy — feel that love, and marriage, 
and babies, are just as sacred in their way as 
their religkm. 

Little children, who do not know any better, 
often play church, pretend to say prayers, and 
talk about God as if He were just like them- 
selves. But older children, who have learned 
that church, prayers and God are sacred subjects, 
never dream of playing at anything of the sort. 

In the same way, little children, and people 
who have no real respect for themselves or for 
others, can play at love and marriage. In little 
children this is not wrong — for they do not know 
any better and their play means nothing, — but in 
older people, who ought to feel that there is 
something too sacred about it for play, it is often 
very, very wrong. 

Boys and girls who are in a great hurry to 
grow up, often think they will appear older if 
they ape the manners of their elders. So, the 
boys put on lover-like airs, and the girls turn 
sentimental and try to flirt. If all this were not 
so very foolish and silly, that all parents know 
that the really sensible boys and girls will soon 
see it and stop it themselves, they would check 
it right away. 

Many parents do warn their daughters that 



272 Yourself 

there is nothing they will feel more sorry for 
when they grow up, than if they have allowed a 
lot of boys to treat them in a lover-like way. 
How would you like to be called by them a 
1 i pawed over girl" for instance? And people 
will call you that very thing, if you allow men 
and boys to flirt with you, and hug and kiss you. 

After a little girl gets to be ten, and grows into 
girlhood, she ought to feel that she is too old to 
be treated like a baby. Nice girls of that age 
cannot bear to be kissed or hugged by any one 
except the men and boys in their own family. 

Perhaps, when they were babies, all their fa- 
ther's friends got into the habit of kissing and 
hugging them. Such men often do not realize 
that little girls grow big, although they may re- 
mark how tall they are getting. When they offer 
to kiss you, it is perfectly right and proper for 
you to say: "Please excuse me. I am no 
longer a baby now, and I would much rather 
shake hands with you, if you don't mind." 

Any gentleman, who is not a dreadful tease, 
will respect even a little girl's wishes in such 
matters, and even the worst tease that ever lived, 
will stop if you show him plainly that you are 
really in earnest. Any man or boy who tries to 
kiss you, in spite of your telling him you do not 
wish it, is ungentlemanly, and if he kisses you by 
force, after you have warned him not to do so, 



About Kissing 27$ 

he deserves to be punished. I would therefore 
advise every girl in the United States, if she can- 
not run away, to slap such a man right in the 
face, and to slap him hard I 

Tattle-tales are, as we know, very silly people, 
but if any one bothers you about this, it is right 
and proper for you to make a fuss, and to com- 
plain to your father, to your mother, or to your 
brothers. But if, in a game, with many people 
all around you, some one should happen to kiss 
you, just take it as a matter of course, and if you 
dislike it, all you need do is not to take part in 
such games hereafter. 

Never allow any one outside of your own 
family to kiss you on the mouth. If you do, you 
are likely to catch any cold or disease that per- 
son may have, for people are often sick before 
they know it themselves. For that reason, no 
one should ever kiss a baby on the lips. Babies 
do not like it and the people who kiss them so, 
torment them, and are selfish. 

Any girl who shows by all her actions that she 
always respects herself, is sure sooner or later to 
win everybody's respect. Of course, you may be 
called prim, and stiff, and a prude, at first, but 
such names never do a girl any harm at all, while 
to be called a flirt, a coquette, or worse still, fast, 
is very bad indeed. Many good people think 
that such a girl is either very vulgar and badly 



274 Yourself 

brought up, or that she has neither a pure soul 
nor a pure body. 

104. About the Company You Keep. 

Many of you children have to leave home and 
school very early, and go into stores and shops, 
where some of you will meet rough and bad men 
and women. You will then hear bad language 
of all kinds, for all the wicked people talk very 
freely. They will, perhaps, even try to talk to 
you about sacred things in a nasty way, and will 
make fun of you for being good. 

Mind all this as little as you can. All boys 
and girls with strong characters, come out of 
these trials all the better and stronger. They 
are " gold tried in the fire," and if they come out 
pure, it proves that they are really good metal. 

If you are firm and true, if you stick to what 
you know or feel to be right, if you shut your 
ears and your mind, as much as you can, to all 
the wrong around you, the good people — and 
there are some good ones everywhere — will 
stand by you and help you. 

The only trouble with good people is, that 
many of them are often too timid, too afraid of 
hurting other people's feelings. There are, for 
instance, any number of men, who know that 
men and women should be equally careful of 
their purity, but who are quite satisfied to keep 



About the Company You Keep 27$ 

good themselves, and to avoid all those who do 
not think as they do. 

In one way they are right, we should never 
keep bad company ; but really brave men never 
allow any base or low talk or doings to go on in 
their presence. They are always ready to stand 
up for the right, and to use all their strength and 
influence to protect other men, women, and chil- 
dren from harm. 

Always believe what such good men tell you, 
and do not listen to any man or boy who says 
that it makes no difference if a young man does 
11 sow wild oats" — or do things which his con- 
science tells him are wrong. Men who talk like 
that, have either never given any serious thought 
to this matter, or they are bad, in spots at least, 
themselves. 

Girls in their teens cannot be too careful what 
company they frequent, nor can they keep too 
close to mother. Some foolish girls think that if 
a young man or boy is clean, nicely dressed, and 
well mannered, he must be a gentleman. But it 
is not always so. There are, for instance, many 
idlers who lounge about our streets. They may 
look like gentlemen, but it is often the case that 
all the dirty looking workmen who pass them are 
much more gentlemanly than they. 

Such idlers often linger around, on purpose to 
talk to young and innocent girls. They flatter 



ij6 Yourself 

them, tease them, get them excited, and then go 
off to repeat what these thoughtless girls have 
said to their evil-minded friends, who twist the 
most innocent remarks around into meaning 
something very different, and far worse than you 
or I can imagine. 

If you think such things cannot be true, just 
read this verse, and see how different the mean- 
ing of exactly the same words can be, if you 
change only the punctuation. 

There is a lady in our land, 
Who has ten nails on every hand, 
Five and twenty on hands and feet, 
All this is true and no deceit. 

This, as you see, is a very queer and wrong 
statement. But, rightly punctuated, it reads : 

There is a lady in our land 
Who has ten nails, on every hand 
Five, and twenty on hands and feet, 
All this is true and no deceit. 

This is perfectly true and still not a word has 
been changed. 

Do you see now why girls should be careful ? 
Do you understand why it is wiser you should 
stay at home ? Do you see why we tell you it is 
unsafe for you to go out at night, unless you 
must) Now, do you realize how right it is if 



About Books 277 

your parents are careful of you, and how ready 
you should be to help and not to hinder them ? 

105. About Books. 

If you wish to be a noble woman, don't read 
many love stories. Most of them are as bad for 
your mind as much candy is for your stomach. 
They may be very sweet and pure, but you know, 
even too much of the purest kind of sugar is bad 
for your liver, and too many of the sweetest books 
are bad for your mind. 

Girls who read too many love stories in their 
teens, often get dreamy and sentimental. They 
think about things instead of doing things, and 
they wish for what they have not, instead of 
making the best of what they have. Besides, 
novels deal mostly with love and marriage, and 
you ought to think as little as possible about those 
subjects, until you are much older. Of course, 
there have been girls who were married very, 
very young, but that is not only foolish, but 
really very wrong. 

Girls in India, even now, often marry at 
twelve or thirteen, but what is the result? 
Travelers tell us that they have seen old, old 
women, bent and gray, and that when they in- 
quired how old these women were, they found 
out that they were only thirty! Why, most 
women here are still very young at that age, and 



278 Yourself 

ever so many consider that it is hardly right to 
marry earlier, because they don't feel wise 
enough yet to bring up children. 

The law, which allows people to marry just as 
soon as it is safe for them to do so, says that boys 
under twenty-one, and girls under eighteen, have 
not the right to marry without the consent of their 
parents. But all sensible young people realize, 
without any law, that they have no right to marry 
until they are full grown, and as a man's bones are 
never full size until he is about twenty-five, most 
men know it is not wise to marry sooner. 

Besides, by that time, young men have gen- 
erally learned what work they can do, how much 
they can earn, and if they are thrifty, they have 
also set aside part of their earnings, so that they 
can provide good homes for the wives who will 
be willing to share them. 

Every boy or girl who hopes some day to be a 
good man or woman, will be good friends with 
the other girls and boys he or she meets, but will 
not do any courting or flirting. You can really 
have just as good, or even a better time, without 
doing so, and then you are sure not to have any- 
thing to regret. 

106. About Pictures. 

Do you remember what I told you about your 
eyes, about the photographs they take, and about 



About Pictures 279 

the picture gallery in your brain > On all sides 
you will see many beautiful pictures, in your 
school-books, in your homes, in the shop- 
windows, and in many of the magazines. All 
the nice and pretty pictures, and all the good 
ones, are fine to store away in your picture 
gallery. 

But, just as there are good and bad books, 
there are also good and bad pictures. Now, 
many good people, who know that purity is the 
finest thing in the world, think that all pictures 
and statues, showing people without clothes on, 
must be very wrong. 

That is not so. Some are wrong and some are 
not. Long, long ago, people were just as good 
as they are now, and yet they did not wear any 
clothes at all. In fact, they did not need any, 
either to help them keep their bodies pure or to 
keep them warm. In hot countries, even now, 
few clothes are worn by the very young people, 
and many children never wear any at all, yet no 
one thinks any more of it than we do of seeing 
our baby naked. 

There are also countries where women always 
keep their faces covered, yet do not care one bit 
if the rest of their body is seen. Clothes, you 
see, are mostly a matter of habit and custom. It 
is the custom here to wear a certain kind of gar- 
ments, so, of course, people follow that custom. 



280 Yourself 

An artist — who studies a long, long time be- 
fore he becomes really skilled, — soon finds out 
that there is nothing more difficult to paint, to 
draw, to model, or to carve, than the human 
figure. He finds that it takes more knowledge 
of art and of science to paint the leg and foot of 
the little angel opposite page 24$, — for instance — 
than to paint all the big angel's dress, the clouds 
and the city beneath them. 

Artists study so long, that they little by little 
find out all the beauty of the human body. 
Every curve, every dimple, every shadow means 
something to them. 

Artists like to paint the human form, not only 
because they see all its beauty, and because they 
can best show their skill in doing so, but also be- 
cause people's clothes change so much that pic- 
tures soon look old-fashioned and ridiculous. 

So that a picture should be really beautiful it 
must be like our idea of what it is meant to rep- 
resent. If the angel, in the frontispiece, wore a 
tailor-made gown and had gloves on, the picture 
would lose nearly all its beauty. The artist 
might know how to paint gowns and gloves so 
well that they looked real, but yet, as they would 
be out of place there, they would spoil the picture. 

If an artist is painting a portrait of a real per- 
son, he of course, represents that person with 
the clothes he or she used to wear. But, if he 






How to Get More Information 281 

paints fancy pictures, he likes to choose subjects 
where he can show his skill, subjects which 
pleased people hundreds of years ago, which 
please them now, and which will please their de- 
scendants hundreds of years from now. 

If you look at a beautitul statue or a painting, 
thinking of the body as a temple, and of the skill 
of the artist, you won't do as some silly, ignorant 
people do, giggle and snicker, or blush and turn 
away your head simply because the human form 
is shown as God made it. 

If you see a picture of a nude figure (one 
without clothes), look at it only to see the beauty 
of it. If the picture is a pure picture, and if you, 
are pure yourself, you will like it more, the 
more you look at it, and you will have none but 
nice, pure thoughts about it. 

If you are pure and the picture is not, the very 
first glance will be enough to make you feel a 
little uncomfortable, and you won't want to look 
at it again. Such pictures are never seen in 
really good books or magazines, or in nice pic- 
ture stores. They are generally shown in places 
where pure-minded people never go, except by 
mistake, and then they get out again, as soon as 
possible, and never go back. 

107. How to Get More Information. 
As you grow older, if you wish to know more 



282 Yourself * 

about yourself than I could make you understand 
here, — although I have really told you all there 
is to tell, — get the books and magazines published 
by the Purity Society, or by any of your church 
societies. They will tell you nothing but what is 
right for you to know. 

There are many other books on these subjects, 
but most of them are written by men who do not 
know what they are talking about, and who are 
trying only to make an easy living. They are — 
like many of the doctors who advertise in the 
newspapers — trying to catch fools, so as to make 
a great deal of money, without thinking of the 
real harm they may do. 

With the exception of the Dwarfs, and of some 
of the anecdotes, all that has been told you in 
this book is strictly true, and boys and girls who 
have read it all through, have no excuse if they 
do not take proper care of the wonderful little 
house God has given them. 

If you love your parents, your country, and 
your God, you will try very hard to become good 
and healthy men and women, and to do your 
duty as such, at all times, and wherever you may 
be. 

Show also that children can be trusted — as 
well as grown people — by never saying one word 
about " Nature's secret," or about any of the 
private parts of this book, to any one except your 



How to Get More Information 283 

teacher during a lesson on this subject, or your 
mother when you are alone with her. 

If your younger brothers and sisters ask you 
questions about these things, do not try to 
answer them yourself, bid them ask mother. If 
any of your friends wish, or need to know all that 
you have learned here, ask their mother's per- 
mission to lend them this book. Do not at- 
tempt to explain any part of it to any one else, 
for, you know, you might get the meaning as 
twisted as the rhyme I quoted to you a little 
while ago. 

As the greatest blessings one can enjoy are a 
" sound mind in a sound body," do all you can 
to cultivate your body, mind and soul, and then 
you will be what God wishes you to be, and 
when you appear before Him, He will be able to 
say to you : " Well done, thou good and faithful 
servant." 



:PP 






SEP 11 1902 
S£P > M 1902 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 


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